MOSCOW (Sputnik) – A mass poisoning by the alcohol-containing liquid Boyaryshnik (Hawthorn) took place in Irkutsk over the weekend. A total of 58 people died while 40 others more remain in hospitals.
"Nine people were detained in the criminal case. They are individual businessmen and their employees engaged in wholesale and retail sales of the aforementioned liquid at sales points at markets … in Irkutsk as well as in other places," Svetlana Petrenko, Investigative Committee’s acting head of media relations, said.
She said that selling the bath essence for people, who consume it as an alcohol drink, was a common practice at these sales points.
Petrenko pointed out that as part of the investigation police conducted 11 searches of sales points, questioned more than 100 people and confiscated over 6,500 liters (about 1,700 gallons) of alcohol-containing products.
