Hyderabad, Nov 27 (IANS): The body of slain Maoist leader Kishenji was brought to Hyderabad airport Saturday night by his family members but police foiled their attempts to bring it into the city and forcibly shifted it to his home town Peddapalli in Karimnagar district.

As soon as Kishenji's body arrived at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad, about 25 km from the city, police took control of it to prevent his relatives and Maoist sympathisers from taking it to the city.

Amid high drama at the airport, the police secretly shifted the body out of the cargo complex from the rear gate even as the media and some Maoist sympathisers were waiting at the terminal.

Police reportedly took away the mobile phones of Kishenji's niece Deepa Rao and Maoist sympathizer and poet P.Varavara Rao, who accompanied the body from Kolkata, to foil any attempt to take the body into Hyderabad.

Virasam or revolutionary writers' association had planned to keep the body at Tank Bund on the banks of Hussainsagar Lake in the heart of the city to enable people to pay their last respects to the Maoist leader.

Revolutionary balladeer Gaddar and other civil liberties activists were stopped by the police outside the airport. Gaddar lodged a strong protest over this and had a heated argument with the police officials.

The body in an ambulance, escorted by three police vehicles, was brought out of the airport and the convoy left for Peddapalli town, about 200 km from Hyderabad, through Outer Ring Road without entering the city.

Meanwhile, police also removed a tent erected by some Maoist sympathisers at a college in Karimnagar town to keep Kishenji's body there for some time en route to Peddapalli. The sympathisers wanted to pay their last respects to the slain Maoist leader.

Police plan to take the body directly to Peddapalli, where Kishenji's mother, brother and other relatives would be performing his last rites Sunday.

Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji had left the town 35 years ago to join the Maoist movement. His mother and other family members say he never visited the town or met them ever since he went into hiding while studying law.

The 55-year-old leader, who was number three in the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist, was gunned down by security forces Thursday in West Midnapore district's Burishole, 10 km from the border with Jharkhand.

Earlier in the day, Kishenji's brother's daughter Deepa Rao identified his body. After the autopsy in Midnapore, the body was handed over to her and Varavara Rao.