Police foiled plans of peoples' associations to bring body of slain Maoist leader Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji, to Ambedkar statue at Tank Bund here on Saturday for paying homage, by shifting it to Peddapally soon after it arrived at the airport in Shamshabad on Saturday night.
Deployment of police
The body was flown from Kolkata to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport by 7.30 p.m. While large number of activists from different peoples' organisations assembled at the airport to receive the body, the police deployed several teams at the arrival lounge to prevent them.
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The moment poet Vara Vara Rao and Padma Kumari of Martyrs United Forum, who came along with the body from Kolkata, entered the arrival lounge, the police rounded up them and seized their mobile phones. They did not allow anyone, including the mediapersons, to come even close to the arrival lounge. Balladeer Gaddar entered into an argument with the policemen as he was not allowed to go inside. “If some Congress leader dies, his body is taken to Gandhi Bhavan. We want to take the body to Tank Bund to pay homage. How can you deny this?” he said.
Shamshabad DCP G. Sudhir Babu, who personally supervised security arrangements at the airport, ensured that the body was taken in an ambulance towards Pahadisharif on the Outer Ring Road.
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From there, the ambulance carrying the body was driven towards L.B. Nagar. Some policemen in uniform and others in plainclothes followed the ambulance in other vehicles.