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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

Newsmeter NetworkCrime & justice

Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were sentenced to death on Valentine’s Day

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns the date the Lahore court sentenced Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru to death: it says the sentence was delivered on 14 February 1931, Valentine’s Day. Newsmeter’s review says it checked that specific assertion and found the sentencing took place months earlier, on 7 October 1930. The review describes searching online for reports about the sentencing. It cites an archived Indian Law Journal account of the Lahore Conspiracy Case, which dates the tribunal’s judgment to 7 October 1930 and says it sentenced all three men to death by hanging. Newsmeter also points to a letter Bhagat Singh wrote to the Punjab Governor, whose opening identifies 7 October 1930 as the date of the sentence. The review says Times Now News reported the same date. Thus, the evidence cited is about the sentencing date, not the later execution. The review separately notes that the claim had circulated before and says media reports in 2019 had also debunked it. Its cited court-account and letter excerpts support the conclusion that 14 February 1931 was not the date of the death sentence.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

Ist die Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel von der Polizei verhaftet worden? Das wird einem Text auf einer Website behauptet, laut dem die Bundeskanzlerin wegen mehrerer Delikte am Freitag den 5. Februar 2021 in Haft genommen worden sei. Die Staatsanwaltschaft Augsburg habe den Haftbefehl erlassen (hier archiviert). Kann das stimmen?

Publisher’s rating: Die Behauptungen stammen von einer humoristischen Website, auf der User beliebige Texte verfassen können - es sind also erfundene Behauptungen.

The claim was that Angela Merkel had been taken into custody on Friday, 5 February 2021, for several offenses, with an arrest warrant issued by the Augsburg public prosecutor’s office. The review identifies the report as originating on a site where users can create joke articles, rather than presenting it as a verified news report. It quotes the site’s disclaimer that its jokes are fictional and should not be taken seriously or used as a reliable source. The review also reports that searches found no credible news reports confirming that Merkel was arrested on that date at the prosecutor’s office’s direction. It links to searches for reports about the alleged arrest and for Merkel in connection with the Augsburg prosecutor’s office. Taken together, the identified source and the absence of credible corroborating reports support the review’s conclusion that the arrest story was invented, not a substantiated account of an actual arrest.

FACTLYCrime & justice

Photos of Delhi police thrashing the farmers who participated in the tractor rally organized on Republic Day

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examines two photos shared as evidence that Delhi police were beating farmers who took part in the Republic Day tractor rally. It places the claim in the setting of the clashes in Delhi on 26 January 2021, when thousands of protesting farmers broke through barricades. The review’s reverse-image searches instead trace the images to two earlier incidents, not those clashes. For the first photo, the review says it found a similar image in a Daily Mail article dated 5 May 2013. That image was described as showing a Sikh protester who fell during a protest seeking justice for victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The account says protesters had tried to march toward then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence and that police arrested around 50 people who attempted to break through barricades. The second photo depicts an injured Sikh man. The review reports finding a similar image in a news article dated 17 June 2019, about Delhi police beating a Gramin Sewa auto driver and his son at Mukherjee Nagar in North West Delhi on 16 June 2019. It identifies the man pictured as the auto driver. Because the images are traced to events in 2013 and 2019, the review concludes they do not document police beating farmers during the 2021 rally.