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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.

6,853 published reviews in this topic

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.

Vishvas NewsCrime & justice

A picture of a man with wounds on his back is viral on social media with a claim that this unarmed food giver (farmer) was beaten up with stick by Police at the protest on the Republic Day.

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

Vishvas News examined a picture of a man with red marks on his back that was circulating with a claim that police had beaten an unarmed farmer during the Republic Day tractor rally. The review identifies the setting as violence during the farmers’ rally in New Delhi and says its investigation found that the picture came from an older incident, not the rally. The claim attached to the image therefore misrepresented when and where the pictured injuries occurred. To check the allegation, the review says it searched online for reports confirming that police had beaten a farmer during the rally, but found no authentic reports confirming the incident. It also sought verification from Dainik Jagran crime reporter Rakesh Singh, who cited Delhi Police spokesperson ACP Anil Mittal. Mittal said police had not beaten anyone in that way during the tractor-rally violence and described the image’s circulation as a rumour. The review also used Google reverse image search to trace the picture’s earlier appearance. It found a June 17, 2019 tweet describing a Sikh auto driver and his son as having been beaten outside Mukherjee Nagar police station, and reported finding other articles about the 2019 Mukherjee Nagar incident. This earlier provenance supports the review’s conclusion that the image was being recirculated with a false connection to the Republic Day rally.

Vishvas NewsCrime & justice

A video of a woman attacking policeman with slippers is viral on social media with a claim that Muslims beat up police in Bareilly if issued with challan.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim attached to the video was that Muslims in Bareilly beat up police after being issued a challan. The review investigated that specific video and reported that it showed an earlier incident in Ghaziabad, not an incident in Bareilly over a traffic challan. It described the incident as involving a police constable beaten by relatives of a customer who had come to correct an Aadhaar card at a State Bank of India branch in Loni border, Ghaziabad.

MediaWiseCrime & justice

Video shows two women getting arrested at an airport for their involvement in the U.S. Capitol riots

Publisher’s rating: Not Legit

The review examined a viral video presented as showing two women being arrested at an airport for participating in the U.S. Capitol riots. It found that the video was not connected to the Jan. 6 events: the TikTok itself did not identify the Capitol or explain when or where the footage was taken, and the person who posted it later clarified that it was filmed in November and “has nothing to do with the capitol.” The timing helped explain how the misleading association arose. The TikTok was posted on Jan. 8, two days after the Capitol events, and was shared with the #NoFLyList hashtag. But the review says the clip itself contained no mention of the riots, either in its description or hashtags. Its conclusion rests on the original poster’s clarification about when the footage was made, not on the timing or the YouTube title’s assertion that the women were arrested for their involvement in the riots.

Fact CrescendoCrime & justice

Claim: Misinformation being spread as Christian preachers killed 2 girls in Andhra

Publisher’s rating: False

The review examined social-media posts claiming that Christian preachers’ promise that Jesus would bring two young women back to life led their parents to sacrifice them in Madanapalle, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh. It identifies the underlying event as the parents killing their own daughters, but says the claim that Christian preachers prompted the killings was not supported by the reporting and material it checked. Fact Crescendo says it first inspected a Polimer television report cited in the posts. That report did not say a Christian preacher caused the killings; instead, the review says it reported that a Tamil Nadu religious figure had advised the parents and that police had arrested him. The review then consulted reports about the parents, naming V. Purushotham Naidu and Padmaja, and says those reports described their belief that the end of the Kali Yuga and the beginning of a new age would bring their daughters back to life. It also states the incident occurred on Sunday, January 24, 2021. The review describes further checks of video and visual evidence: a video of Padmaja being brought for a COVID test in which she says she is Shiva; an ETV report showing Hindu deity images in the home’s prayer room; and reports that the daughters had posted on social media about Shiva. On the evidence it presents, the asserted Christian-preacher explanation is not borne out. The review concludes that the claim that the parents sacrificed their daughters after being told by Christian preachers that Jesus would resurrect them is false.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

Schneemann-Räumung durch die deutsche Polizei? Auf einem Foto, das bei Facebook verbreitet wird, sind Polizisten im Schnee zu sehen, einer rollt einen grossen Schneeball weg (hier archiviert). Dazu behauptet der User, die Polizei zerstöre Schneemänner vor den Augen von Kindern. In den Kommentaren ist ein Video von der Szene verlinkt.

Publisher’s rating: Die Behauptung ist falsch. Die Polizei räumt Schneebälle weg, die von Demonstranten als Blockade genutzt wurden. Die Bilder entstanden im Dezember 2020 bei einer Protestaktion gegen die Rodung eines Waldgebietes im deutschen Bundesland Hessen.

FACTLYCrime & justice

Dead bodies of children are found inside a container in Tamil Nadu

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a social-media video of numerous dead children, said to have been found inside a container in Tamil Nadu. FACTLY’s review says the video’s visuals instead show victims of a chemical attack in Ghouta, Syria, during the Syrian civil war in 2013, and that the video has no connection to Tamil Nadu. The review specifically describes the mismatch between the circulated claim and the footage, rather than disputing that the footage shows dead children: “These visuals actually show fatalities of a chemical attack in Ghouta, Syria during the Syrian civil war back in 2013.” To trace the footage, the review reports using reverse image search on screenshots from the post. That search led to a 2013 blog showing a similar image and identifying it as children who died in the Ghouta attack in August 2013. FACTLY then searched YouTube using relevant keywords and found 2013 news videos with similar visuals, including a CNN report that identified the images as people killed in a chemical-weapons attack in Syria. The review also says it found 2013 reporting on the Ghouta attack from Al Jazeera and an analysis by Human Rights Watch containing a similar image. Taken together, these comparisons support the review’s conclusion that the video was misrepresented as showing a discovery in Tamil Nadu: the visual matches it describes are tied to the 2013 attack in Syria, not the claimed location or event.

FACTLYCrime & justice

Video of three men hacking another to death on a busy road in Karol Bhag, Delhi

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The post claimed that a video showing three men hacking a man to death on a busy road depicted an incident in Karol Bagh, Delhi. The fact-check says the footage instead shows a murder in Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, so the location attached to the video was wrong: it was not an incident in Delhi. To investigate, the publisher reports searching YouTube with relevant keywords and finding regional news videos with visuals similar to the social-media clip. Those reports placed the incident in Rajendranagar and showed Shamshabad DCP N. Prakash Reddy speaking to the media. The review also consulted news coverage and an FIR copy, and reports that the victim was Mohammed Khaleel and that the stated motive was a financial dispute. The evidence described addresses the central issue—the video’s location—by connecting visually similar footage to local reporting and police comments about the Hyderabad murder. The review does not provide a separate technical analysis of the video or details from the FIR beyond saying that a copy was available; those methods and documents should not be taken as evidence of details the excerpt does not specify.