Mumbai:
Jailed gangster Abu Salem, who is suffering from malaria, has refused to get admitted to a hospital, preferring treatment inside the prison, said a hospital official on Saturday.
"Salem came to the hospital for diagnosis. He tested positive for malaria on Friday," T.P. Lahane, dean of J.J. Hospital, said.
"But he refused to get admitted to the prison ward of the hospital. He said he would get treated within the jail."
Hospital sources, however, said Salem did not get admitted to the hospital's prison ward since his demand for a separate ward was not accepted.
Salem, who was deported from Portugal, has been lodged in Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai for the past two years.
He was brought to the J.J. Hospital for tests after he complained of fever and shivering.
Lahane said Salem was referred to doctors from the medicine department, who advised a blood test.
"The test confirmed he was suffering from P vivax malaria and was advised treatment," he said.
Ajmal Kasab, the 26/11 terrorist who was hanged in a Pune jail on November 21, was diagnosed with dengue-like fever on November 4. Doctors from the J.J. Hospital treated him at Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail.