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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.

6,849 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYCrime & justice

Nupur Sharma supporter ‘Naresh’ chopped off Rauf’s head in self-defence

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim was that “Naresh,” described as a Nupur Sharma supporter, chopped off Rauf’s head in self-defence after receiving threats for supporting her. FACTLY says it could not find credible information confirming that a supporter killed someone named Rauf in self-defence, or recent reports confirming that a Nupur Sharma supporter had beheaded someone. The review’s conclusion rests on the absence of such corroborating evidence in the reporting it checked; the excerpt does not describe independent verification of a video or provide records of an alleged incident. The article distinguishes this allegation from two documented killings linked to support for Nupur Sharma on social media. It reports that pharmacist Umesh Kolhe was murdered in Amravati, Maharashtra, on 21 June 2022, and that Ghaus Mohammad and Riyaz Attari killed tailor Kanhaiyalal in Udaipur, Rajasthan, on 28 June 2022. Those events involved different named victims and locations, and the excerpt does not identify either as the alleged killing of Rauf by Naresh. For a similar claim about an incident in Kolhapur, the article says AajTak contacted the Kolhapur Superintendent of Police, who confirmed it was fake news. That check concerns the similar Kolhapur claim, not evidence that the specific alleged Naresh–Rauf incident occurred. The review therefore reports no confirming evidence for the claim under examination, while separating it from both the reported killings and the similar claim addressed by AajTak.

Vera FilesCrime & justice

Maria Ressa has been sentenced to 6 years in prison for cyber libel.

Publisher’s rating: Needs Context

Research from related reporting confirms that Maria Ressa received a sentence whose maximum was six years, but the reporting describes a prison-term range rather than a fixed six-year sentence. Philstar reports that the Manila Regional Trial Court convicted Ressa and Reynaldo Santos Jr. on June 15, 2020, sentencing them to “six months to six years in prison plus P400,000 in damages each.” The claim is therefore accurate as to the sentence’s upper limit, but leaves out the lower end of the stated range. Later coverage likewise describes the sentence as ranging from eight months and 20 days to six years. A March 2026 report says the Court of Appeals upheld the conviction in July 2022, and that Ressa and Santos appealed to the Supreme Court in November 2022. These details concern the same cyber libel case, not a separate proceeding. The later reporting also describes a subsequent development: the Office of the Solicitor General recommended that the Supreme Court acquit Ressa and Santos, arguing that the charge was time-barred. That was a recommendation, not a reported Supreme Court ruling overturning the conviction. The supplied excerpts say the Supreme Court had yet to rule on the recommendation.

FACTLYCrime & justice

Supreme Court has penalized Vijay Mallya with four months jail term and Rs. 2000 fine in Rs. 9000 crore loan case

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim joins two facts but gives the wrong reason for the sentence. The Supreme Court did sentence Vijay Mallya to four months in prison and impose a Rs. 2,000 fine. But, according to the review, this was punishment in a contempt-of-court case, not a sentence for defaulting on the Rs. 9,000 crore loan. The review says the court also ordered him to pay the fine within the stipulated time or face a further two-month sentence. The contempt proceedings arose from allegations about Mallya’s conduct in litigation connected to the loans. In 2017, a consortium led by the State Bank of India approached the Supreme Court, alleging that Mallya had not complied with court orders to disclose assets and financial transactions. The review says the allegation included that he transferred $40 million to his children in violation of an order. The Supreme Court found him guilty of contempt in May 2017, but did not pronounce the sentence until 11 July 2022. That connection to the loan dispute does not make the sentence a penalty for the loan default itself. The review distinguishes the contempt ruling from the separate loan-default case and explains that the July 2022 judgment punished the earlier contempt. It therefore supports the claim’s details about the imprisonment and fine, while correcting its stated cause: Mallya was sentenced for contempt of court, not in the Rs. 9,000 crore loan-default case.

Culturalist PressCrime & justice

The gap came to light only after the Uvalde massacre, when ProPublica and the Tribune started asking questions about reporting requirements for juveniles. The shooter was an 18-year-old who had passed a background check before buying two AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, despite what officials have described as a troubled mental health history. It is unclear if he was ever committed.

Publisher’s rating: There was no prior awareness that in Texas a minor who turns 18 is able to buy firearms even if commited to a hospital a few months prior.

dpaCrime & justice

Informationen/Fotos zeigen, dass der Schütze von Highland Park mit Sozialisten, Progressiven und der Antifa in Verbindung steht.

Publisher’s rating: Für Verbindungen des Täters in die linke Szene gibt es bisher keine Belege. Über ein mögliches Tatmotiv ist noch nicht viel bekannt. Ein Foto, auf dem angeblich ein Tattoo des Täters zu sehen sein soll, zeigt ein Tattoo einer anderen Person; sie veröffentlichte das Foto bereits vor Jahren im Netz.

The claim concerns alleged political connections of the man who attacked a street parade near Chicago, including purported links to socialists, progressives, or Antifa. The review examined a collage circulated as evidence of ties to the left and a linked blog post making a further tattoo-based allegation. It says that the material did not establish such connections and that little was known about a possible motive at the time. The collage contained four images. The two at the top showed the attacker, but the lower-left image of an arm tattoo—a fist holding a rose—was not his. The review reports that reverse-image searching traced that image to Reddit and Imgur posts from 2014, and quotes the Reddit user who said he had posted the tattoo years earlier. Thus, the image used to suggest the attacker had a socialist tattoo belonged to another person and predated the attack by years. A linked blog also claimed that a tattoo on the attacker’s neck showed the logo of the Democratic Socialists of America. The review notes that the tattoo and logo had a rose in common but otherwise resembled each other only minimally. It also reports that images in the blog carried the logo of XRVision, a Singapore-based company offering AI video analysis, and that false claims about the US left had previously invoked the company. The review’s findings undermine the presented tattoo evidence; they do not establish the attacker’s motive or prove that no political association of any kind existed.

Fact Crescendo CambodiaCrime & justice

ទំព័រ​ហ្វេ​សប៊ុក​មួយ​ដែល​មាន​ឈ្មោះ​ថា​ «𝕭𝖊𝖙-បេទី»​ បាន​ចែក​រំលែក​នូវ​រូប​ថត​មួយ​សន្លឹក​ ដែលបង្ហាញ​ឱ្យ​ឃើញ លោក​ ផែង​ វណ្ណៈ​ ត្រូវ​បាន​ចាប់​ខ្លួន​ និង​ជាប់​ខ្នោះ​ដៃ​។​

Publisher’s rating: Altered

FACTLYCrime & justice

Video shows Teesta Setalvad spitting and assaulting the cops

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The video circulated with a Hindi caption identifying the woman as Teesta Setalvad, and the claim was that she was spitting at and assaulting police officers as they tried to detain her. FACTLY’s investigation identifies the woman in that video as Netta D’Souza, then acting president of the All India Mahila Congress—not Setalvad. It says police detained D’Souza during a protest concerning the Enforcement Directorate’s investigation of Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case. To establish the video’s setting, the review says it checked relevant internet search results and found media reports about the incident. Those reports placed it in Delhi on 21 June 2022 and described D’Souza and other Congress workers protesting the Enforcement Directorate’s questioning of Gandhi. The review thus links the woman in the disputed footage to a specific person and event, rather than relying on the caption accompanying the post. The review also distinguishes that incident from Setalvad’s arrest four days later. It reports that Gujarat Police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested her on 25 June 2022, and says videos of that arrest do not show her spitting at police. Taken together, the review’s identification of D’Souza in the viral footage and its separate account of Setalvad’s arrest support its conclusion that the circulated video does not depict Setalvad.