LUCKNOW: Special task force of UP police gathered names of 36 Nepali nationals who have acquired the identity of Indian citizens to join the army. Illegal presence of a large number of Nepali citizens in different army units across the country has forced the law enforcement agency and defence establishment to check their antecedents on an urgent basis in order to rule out a wider espionage syndicate, which may have been backed by some neighbouring state.Late Wednesday night, sleuths arrested the four persons who were allegedly running illegal army recruitment syndicate in Uttar Pradesh. They were in collusion with Lucknow based revenue department employees since 2013, just when Nepal government had put restrictions on Gurkha regiment recruitment rallies in their country.Four persons were arrested, including Ashwini Maurya who worked as a contractual computer operator at the collectorate, besides Nepali Sandeep Thapa employed at a private club in Lucknow Cantt for the past decade, another Nepali Milan Thapa and Anil Srivastava, who owned a business centre in Sadar, Cantt.On Thursday, further probes threw up names of Mazhar, a dispatcher who worked at Qaiserbagh collectorate and Samir Singh who provided certified domicile certificates at the revenue office. Names of three other contractual computer operators who worked at the revenue office, have also cropped up.STF Addl SP S Anand said, “The key man behind the syndicate Prakash Thapa (in early 40s) used to work for Nepal army intelligence unit and was dismissed from services. He had been visiting the city since 2013 and stayed in Neelmatha , a locality dominated by ex-servicemen in Cantt area of Lucknow. These 36 men concealed their identities and paid Rs 7 to 10 lakh to join the army.”An army officer posted in Lucknow, said on condition of anonymity, “In recruitment drive, we send marksheets, school certificates, etc to government departments and if found fabricated, legal action is initiated against candidates and they are blacklisted. These men got away as revenue department and education department certified their credentials to prove them wrongly as local residents.”