Bhopal, May 4 (Inditop.com) A prisoner accused of keeping illegal firearms died of AIDs in a Bhopal district hospital, police said Tuesday.

“Sallu (20) was arrested for keeping firearms and presented in court on April 5 from where he was sent to jail. He fell ill on Saturday (May 1) and was admitted to the district hospital where he died Monday night,” said a police officer, adding that the doctors attending to him have found that he was HIV-positive.

“There are about 80 HIV-infected prisoners in various jails of Madhya Pradesh with the maximum number in Bhopal,” said a jail official.

The number of those affected by AIDS in the state has risen from one in 1988, to 414 in October 2009, according to the latest figures available with the Madhya Pradesh State AIDs Control Society (MPSACS). The total number of people infected between 1988 and 2009 has been 3,322.

The figures compiled by the MPSACS reveal that 91.7 percent patients acquire the deadly virus through sexual transmission, two percent through blood transfusion, 0.8 percent perinatally, three percent through infected needles and 2.5 percent acquire the virus because of unknown reasons.