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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Crime & justice fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about crime & justice. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

6,833 published reviews in this topic

Fact CrescendoCrime & justice

Claim: fake news shared that rss person arrested in bengaluru for bomb threat

Publisher’s rating: ஃபேக்ட் கிரஸண்டோ ரேட்டிங்: FALSE

The claim concerned a social-media post alleging that an RSS-linked person had been arrested in Bengaluru for trying to bomb a temple. The post used a photograph of a person dressed as a Muslim woman. Fact Crescendo reports that the image was circulated with text saying the person had been sent to plant a bomb and had been caught in Bengaluru; it also says the post appeared on Facebook on October 19, 2023. The review found no reports of such an arrest on October 18 or 19, and concluded that the claim was false. The review checked whether the alleged arrest appeared in news reporting for those dates, noting that it found no such report. It also traced the photograph to earlier circulation: the same image had been used in a 2019 rumor about someone allegedly dressing as a Muslim woman to disrupt protests against India’s Citizenship Amendment Act. The review says Egyptian and Somali media had also published the image, and identifies a 2017 Egyptian report as describing the person as someone arrested in connection with child abduction—not a Bengaluru bomb suspect. Thus, the review’s conclusion rests on two points: it found no contemporaneous reporting supporting the claimed Bengaluru arrest, and it traced the image to an older, unrelated story from Egypt. The supplied excerpt does not provide further details from that 2017 report, so it does not establish the person’s identity beyond the review’s account of the image’s prior provenance.

dpaCrime & justice

In Weilheim stecken Umschläge mit vergifteten Koran-CDs in den Briefkästen.

Publisher’s rating: An der vermeintlichen Gefahr ist nichts dran. Die Polizei hat das längst dementiert. Nichts deutet darauf hin, dass solche CDs mit chemischen Substanzen wirklich einmal verteilt wurden.

The claim concerns envelopes in Weilheim that supposedly contained CDs with Quranic content treated with a harmful substance. The review traces this allegation to a hoax that circulated on social media, including claims that such CDs were being placed in mailboxes in Upper Bavaria. It says the story was old and false, rather than evidence of a current poisoning threat. [S1: “Die Story kommt Ihnen bekannt vor? Gut möglich, denn sie ist alt - und falsch.”; “Dies soll unter anderem in Oberbayern passiert sein.”] The review reports that police had already rejected the allegation in 2016. A spokesperson for the Upper Bavaria South Police Headquarters described it as a hoax, and the review says neither the state criminal police nor the criminal police in Weilheim had confirmed any such incidents. It also reports that nobody had been hospitalized at the time with a corresponding poisoning. [S1: “Die dortige Polizei dementierte schon damals in Medien und auf Facebook, dass es zu solchen Vorfällen gekommen sei.”; “Weder das Landeskriminalamt noch die Kriminalpolizei im genannten Ort Weilheim hatte dem Polizeisprecher zufolge bestätigt, dass es zu solchen Ereignissen gekommen sei. Niemand habe damals mit einer entsprechenden Vergiftung im Krankenhaus gelegen.”] For the review’s current check, the publisher says it asked the Upper Bavaria South Police Headquarters about the claim. Police chief inspector Stefan Sonntag told it that nobody in Weilheim was currently in hospital because of such an incident and called the circulating story false. The review therefore finds no evidence that the alleged poisoned CDs were actually distributed. [S1: “Auf Anfrage der dpa bestätigte Polizeihauptkommissar Stefan Sonntag vom Polizeipräsidium Oberbayern Süd jüngst, dass auch aktuell niemand in Weilheim aufgrund eines derartigen Vorfalls im Krankenhaus liege.”; “Es handle sich um eine «Falschmeldung», die schon im Jahr 2016 verbreitet worden sei.”; “Nichts deutet darauf hin, dass solche CDs mit chemischen Substanzen wirklich einmal verteilt wurden.”]

המשרוקיתCrime & justice

הפרקליטות [החליטה] להטיל על משרד הרווחה לבצע תסקיר מבחן למחבלים קטינים

Publisher’s rating: מטעה

The claim concerned two Hamas members under 18 who were reportedly captured in southern Israel after the October 7 attacks. Welfare workers were expected to prepare reports about them. The review says the report about the two minors was likely accurate, but disputes the claim that the prosecution had initiated or ordered the process: the obligation arose under the rules for criminal proceedings involving minors. The review cites section 10z of the Youth Law, which it says requires a court, when considering a request to detain an indicted minor, to order a detention report or allow a probation officer to present a view on detention. It also quotes former national youth-police chief Suzy Ben Baruch explaining that probation officers are the relevant Welfare Ministry professionals and that preparation of a report is a statutory duty, not an initiative by prosecutors or police. Thus, the existence of a report did not establish that the prosecution had decided to impose one. The review adds that criminal proceedings can be used when authorities seek harsher punishment, and that a report’s recommendation does not necessarily mean a lighter sentence. It also notes a practical qualification: interviewing the minors could pose a safety risk to probation officers in the security conditions in the south, while interviews by video or other remote means were described as possible. Those considerations may support avoiding an in-person meeting, but do not change the review’s central distinction between a legal requirement and a prosecution directive.

ಲಾಜಿಕಲಿ ಫ್ಯಾಕ್ಟ್ಸ್‌Crime & justice

ಆಂಧ್ರಪ್ರದೇಶ ರಾಜ್ಯ ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ಸಲಹೆಗಾರ ಸಜ್ಜಲ ರಾಮಕೃಷ್ಣ ರೆಡ್ಡಿ ಅವರ ಬೆಂಗಾವಲು ಪಡೆ ಹಾದು ಹೋಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದಂತೆ ಪೊಲೀಸ್ ಸಿಬ್ಬಂದಿಯು ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಯೊಬ್ಬನನ್ನು ತಳ್ಳುವುದಾಗಿ ವೀಡಿಯೋ ತೋರಿಸುತ್ತದೆ.

Publisher’s rating: ತಪ್ಪು

Vishvas NewsCrime & justice

உஜ்ஜயினியில் மைனர் சிறுமி பலாத்காரம் செய்யப்பட்டதாக, அதைத் தொடர்ந்து பலாத்காரம் செய்தவர் என்கவுன்டரில் கொல்லப்பட்டதாக கூறப்படும் ஒரு பதிவு பரவலாகப் பரவி வருகிறது. இந்த என்கவுண்டரை காவல்துறை செய்தது என்று கூறப்படுகிறது.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLYCrime & justice

Photo of AAP MP Sanjay Singh taken away by police after his arrest on 4 October 2023

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a photograph of AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh being carried by police, presented as an image from his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate on 4 October 2023 in the Delhi Excise policy case. FACTLY’s review says it checked the image’s history and found that the photograph was taken nearly a year earlier, during a different police detention in Delhi. The review describes a reverse image search on Google as the method that led it to news articles identifying the photo as old. It says the image was made on 17 October 2022, when Singh participated in a protest outside the CBI headquarters against the questioning of then Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in connection with the Delhi Excise policy case. Police detained Singh for allegedly violating prohibitory orders. The distinction is the occasion shown in the photo: the review attributes it to Singh’s 2022 protest detention, not his October 2023 arrest by the ED. It also points to separate visuals of Singh’s arrest in the Excise policy case, distinguishing those from the circulated older image.

日本ファクトチェックセンターCrime & justice

拉致された横田めぐみさんと母が、毎月密会していた

Publisher’s rating: 誤り

The claim was that Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korea, and her mother, Sakie Yokota, secretly met every month at Yokota Air Base. The post circulated on X on June 3, 2023, with a photograph of three women. The review traces the claim to a post asserting that Megumi visited the base monthly to meet her parents, and examines both the photograph and the alleged meetings. The claim-match and the original review’s conclusion concern this specific claim and image. To identify the photograph, the review says it searched for the image and found a June 9, 2016, Nikkei article. That article identified the women as Megumi’s daughter, Ungyon, Sakie Yokota, and Ungyon’s daughter, photographed in Ulaanbaatar in March 2014. Thus, the image shows Sakie meeting her granddaughter, not Megumi. The review also reports that Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs describes Megumi’s whereabouts as unconfirmed. The review separately contacted the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea. Its chair, Tsutomu Nishioka, replied that the Yokota parents had not met Megumi and called the claim a fabrication. The review concludes that the photograph does not show the claimed meeting and that its inquiry found no basis for the alleged monthly encounters. It also checked the claim about the base’s name: the Fussa City Tourism Association attributes it to a place name in the former Murayama Village, not to Megumi Yokota.