Indian Railways slams report that Olympic women's hockey team were made to sit on floor

Channel CNN-News 18 has earlier reported that the women were forced to travel sitting on the floor of the compartment in the Bokaro-Alleppey Express Train, traveling from Ranchi to Rourkela. It had alleged that the TTE had forced the national athletes to sit on the floor after their tickets were found to be unconfirmed.

However, Indian Railways, in a statement today, refuted the claims and said, "The news reports about Women's hockey team, after their return from Rio Olympics being forced to sit on the floor while they were travelling from Ranchi to Rourkela via Bokaro-Allepey Express train is completely false. Also the information that of the TTE asked them to sit on the floor of the bogey of the train is untrue," reported ANI.

The Railway Ministry also added that the players took the train without any prior intimation to the authorities which would have enabled them to make arrangements ahead of time. They stated that the athletes were provided seats at the earliest possible instance.

"However, when the players boarded the train with unconfirmed tickets, the TTE took only 20 minutes to make seats available to them," the statement added.

"They also said that the players were in a hurry to meet their family members and hence preponed the plan which led to the confusion," said the statement, reported ANI.