Banda (Uttar Pradesh), March 26 (IANS): Mafia don and former MLA Mukhtar Ansari has been admitted to the ICU in Banda Medical College after his health deteriorated in the jail on Tuesday morning.

According to sources, Ansari was shifted to the hospital amidst tight security. Officials refused to comment on the matter but a police official confirmed that he was in hospital now.

A few days ago, Mukhtar Ansari had said that his life was in danger. He had expressed the fear that he was being given slow poison in jail. The jailer and two deputy jailers of Banda jail were suspended for negligence in this matter. Besides, disciplinary action was also initiated.

Mukhtar Ansari was to appear in the court last Thursday in the ambulance case, but he did not reach the court and through his lawyer sent an application to the judge saying that there was a threat to his life in Banda jail.

Mukhtar Ansari had written in the letter that the food given to him on March 19 was mixed with some poisonous substance. He fell ill after eating it.

He had written in the letter that after eating food, he started having severe pain in the nerves of his hands and legs, and then his hands and feet started becoming cold. Earlier, on March 13, Ansari, lodged in the Banda jail, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the 36-year-old Ghazipur fake arms license case.