A fraud accused who ingested a poisonous substance on Wednesday in a holding cell at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts succumbed on Thursday evening at a medical institution.
The man had been taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital by police officers on duty at the court after they were alerted by other prisoners that he had ingested a strange substance.
Dead is Michael Persaud, 43, of Lot 15 Public Road, Herstelling, East Bank Demerara. According to a hospital official, who confirmed the man’s death, Persaud passed away around 6.30 pm on Thursday while receiving treatment in the Intensive Care Unit.
It is still not clear how the accused accessed the substance.
Persaud had been charged in May with several counts of obtaining money by false pretence. He was granted $500,000 bail after it was alleged that over a two-year period, he falsely obtained $13 million from a woman to deliver a range of services, including building a house and hiring a private investigator.
He was at court on Wednesday in relation to the case.
