Three women Maoists held in Odisha

Three women Maoists were Friday arrested in Odisha's Gajapati district and a huge cache of arms and ammunition seized from them, police said.

Based on a tip-off about the Maoists' presence, police launched an operation at a forest near Mohana, about 300 km from Bhubaneswar, and nabbed the three women.

The women were identified as Nikita Majhi, D. Anita and Susanti Majhi - all aged about 24-25 years.

Nikita has more than 40 criminal cases against her, Deputy Inspector General of Police Amitabh Thakur told IANS.

Police found a number of arms and huge quantity of ammunition from them, including an AK-47 rifle, two Insas assault rifles, four self-loading rifles, five pistols, a tiffin bomb and 13 magazines, besides Rs.10.5 lakh in cash.