New Delhi: The railway ministry on Friday dismissed as “fake” and “misleading” claims that a man travelled 250 kilometres from Itarsi to Jabalpur hiding on a train’s wheel axle.

Railway officials said that someone shot the video of the man coming out of the wheel axle of a stationary train and circulated it with the misleading claim that he had to hide himself near the wheelset because he did not have money to buy tickets.

“These reports are completely fake and baseless,” Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, said.

“The person was just hiding near the wheel axle when the train was not moving. It is practically not possible for anyone to hide on the wheelset of a moving train as it moves along with the wheels,” he said.

“Some news organisations and social media influencers picked it up and made it viral without verifying its authenticity,” Kumar added.