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[caption id="attachment_45002" align="alignnone" width="580"] Arnab Mondal and Mehtab Hossain travelling in a train on their way back to the city yesterday.[/caption] Kolkata: East Bengal footballers Mehtab Hossain, Arnab Mondal, Subhashish Roy Chowdhury, Narayan Das and Mohammad Rafique were let off by the club’s top officials after seeking an unconditional apology for their train journey to Kolkata yesterday. The players were in the middle of a huge controversy after they chose to return back to the city in a train with unreserved tickets. The club officials summoned all the players to seek their views. The footballers admitted of having committed a mistake in front of the club officials. According to Mehtab Hossain, “We decided to come back on our own as we were very disappointed after failing to win the derby even after dominating the proceedings. We mentally didn’t want to stay back. But the way the matter is being blown out of proportion is quite baffling. We were surprised to see the Mohun Bagan supporters making it such a big issue.” The midfielder further added, “Since the prestige of the club was associated, we did not want any misunderstanding between us and the club officials.” Another senior footballer Arnab Mondal too admitted his mistake to come on his own. According to Arnab, “We have admitted our mistake to the club officials and hope not to repeat it again.” Goalkeeper Coach Abhijit Mondal commented, “The situation was such that we were finding it difficult to stay back after losing the derby. We shouldn’t have come back in train. But we all had reserved tickets.” The former goalkeeper who had earlier plied his trade with Dempo SC added, “Someone like Narayan Das travels in a train everyday to practice from Triveni. So, it is nothing new that a footballer has to travel in a train.” All the six players returned to Kolkata after representing East Bengal in the Federation Cup tournament at Cuttack. Travelling without reservation has its own perils and Narayan Das was seen sitting on his kit bag next to the lavatory of the Jan Shatabdi Express. The pictures of the footballer’s travelling in train went viral and the social media was flooded with messages from the fans of both clubs. Club’s top official Debabrata Sarkar was not in favour of imposing any fine. According to Mr Sarkar, “They have come to the club to sought un-conditional apology. We are happy with their explanation and decided to leave the matter.” Not only the likes of Mehtab and Arnab who has travelled on their own. In fact all three foreign players Willis Plaza, Wedson Anselme, Ivan Bukenya along with Semboi  Haokip travelled back to Kolkata on road. They were accompanied by Gurwinder Singh and Robin Singh in another car. On being asked what will happen to those footballers, Debabrata Sarkar said, “The footballers will face the consequence. They shouldn’t have come on their own at night. They are going to feel the heat at the time of payment.”