New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS) An MCD employee was arrested in Delhi Friday on charges of procuring an arms licence on the basis of fake recommendation letters from army units here and in Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

Jai Prakash, 58, worked as a sweeper with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

'During verification of genuineness of the arms licence from the concerned district magistrate, it was revealed that the licence was issued on the basis of recommendation certificates issued by various army units, including Ordnance Depot, Delhi, 5071 ASC Bn (MT) and Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir,' a police officer said.

'On further verification, the said recommendation letters were found to be fake,' the police officer said.

During interrogation, Prakash revealed that in order to pressurise his business rivals he needed the gun.

'For this purpose, he contacted Ranjit Singh (previously arrested in this case) who worked in the Ordnance Depot Shakur Basti as a sweeper and was involved in providing arms licences to civilians by fabricating fake recommendation letters on behalf of army units. Prakash had paid a sum of Rs.18,000 to Singh for procuring the arms licence,' the police officer said.

Police recovered one revolver, 17 live rounds and three spent cartridges of .32 caliber from Prakash.