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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.

6,837 published reviews in this topic

Sunanda NaikCrime & justice

Mathura Ayushi Yadav murderis a case of love jihad

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns the murder of Ayushi Yadav, whose body was found in a suitcase in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, and online posts alleged that the killing was connected to “love jihad.” NewsMeter reports that Mathura police said the body was found on the Yamuna Expressway on 18 November and later identified the woman as Ayushi, a resident of Badarpur, Delhi. The review says the photos circulating online were presented as evidence of a communal motive, but that assertion was not supported by the investigation it describes. The review reports that Ayushi had argued with her father on 17 November after marrying Chatrapal without telling her family. It says her father shot her twice, and that family members kept the body at home overnight before disposing of it in a trolley bag on the Yamuna Expressway. The account identifies the killing as an honour-related family crime, not an attack motivated by religious identity. For its checks, NewsMeter says it ran a reverse-image search, locating posts from Mathura police about the case, and then searched for reporting on the murder. It reports finding a Times of India account that described the case as honour killing. On the evidence presented, the review concludes that the “love jihad” framing was false and that there was no communal angle.

FACTLYCrime & justice

CNN news article reporting the arrest of a Florida man for using a lost US nuke to power his home for more than 25 years

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY investigated an image circulating as a CNN article that claimed a Florida man had been arrested for using a lost US nuclear warhead to power his home. The review reports that it searched CNN’s website and social media accounts for the story and also looked for coverage by other news outlets, but found none. It instead traced the story to a website publishing satirical fiction: “the fictional story of a man finding a lost nuclear warhead was published in a satirical and fictional story website ‘worldnewsdailyreport.com’ in 2015.” The review also examined the images used in the purported article. It identifies the man as Todd Warnken and says The Guardian reported that he was charged with misdemeanour aggravated harassment in 2016 in New York—not for using a nuclear weapon. The underwater image, meanwhile, came from a 2014 DW article about deteriorating, non-nuclear munitions in the Baltic Sea. The review notes that the DW article “did not mention that any of these weapons were nuclear.” FACTLY further says the image was shared on iFunny by ‘Ifunny_News’ on 13 April 2022, and quotes the account’s bio as saying, “Almost all my stuff is fake”. Together, the reported satirical origin, absence of corroborating news coverage in the searches described, and mismatched image sources support the conclusion that the viral image was not evidence of a genuine CNN report or arrest for the alleged nuclear-warhead use.

FACTLYCrime & justice

Shraddha’s murder accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala belongs to Parsi community

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned Aaftab Amin Poonawala, accused in the murder of Shraddha, and a social-media post asserting that he belonged to the Parsi community. FACTLY’s review says it checked records and Aaftab’s own earlier social-media response, and concluded that the claim was incorrect. Its stated evidence points to him being Muslim, not Parsi. The review reports that it found Aaftab’s Instagram account, “thehungrychokro.” It says that after a user asked in October 2014 whether he was Hindu or Muslim, Aaftab replied that he was Muslim. The review also cites a statement attributed to Shraddha’s father in an FIR filed at Mehrauli police station on 10 November 2022: he described Aaftab as Muslim when explaining the family’s objection to the couple’s relationship. As further support, FACTLY says it accessed voter-ID details for Aaftab and family members on the Maharashtra CEO website, listing names for his parents, younger brother and grandfather. The article presents these records alongside the Instagram reply and FIR statement as evidence against the post’s Parsi-community claim. These are the checks and evidence described by the review; the supplied excerpt does not provide copies of the underlying records or independently document their contents.

YouturnCrime & justice

வாகனங்களை பொதுமக்கள் பாத்து நிறுத்தணுமாம்! – தமிழக காவல் துறை. மெயின் ஏரியாவில் ஒரு வண்டியே உள்ள முழகும் அளவுக்கு பள்ளம் தோண்டி மூடாமல் விட்டுள்ள கார்பொரேஷன் அதிகாரிகள் மீது வழக்கு போட்டு உள்ள தள்ளாமால் கைலகாத்தனமாக செயல் படும் tnpoliceoffl

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

El Detector / Univision NoticiasCrime & justice

"Atraco de película en el aeropuerto de las Américas de República Dominicana”.

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The viral Facebook post presented footage of an apparent armed attacker taking a woman hostage at the check-in area of Las Américas International Airport as a real “movie-like robbery.” The investigation identifies the scene as a security exercise, not an actual robbery or kidnapping. It reports that the exercise was organized by authorities and took place on November 10, 2022. The review describes several checks supporting that conclusion. An inverse image search led investigators to a post warning against misinformation and sharing an announcement from Aeropuertos Dominicanos (Aerodom). That announcement said an active-shooter drill would take place that day in public and restricted airport areas. Investigators also found a National Police statement denying that gunfire and a hostage incident had occurred at the airport and identifying the footage as a partial active-shooter drill. The footage itself contains cues consistent with a staged exercise: a woman can be heard anticipating that people will get down, and an official is shown filming the apparent hostage scene at close range. The review also reports that the police shared a still from the video labeled as a hostage simulation. Together, the advance drill announcement, police account, and details visible or audible in the video explain why the footage does not establish that a real airport robbery occurred.