PeakMetrics / Fact Checks
Crime & justice fact checks
Explore claims publishers have checked about crime & justice. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.
Search fact checks
Search by text or image6,854 published reviews in this topic
Man accused of raping 5-year-old in Dubai executed within 15 mins after crime.
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
Claim Ludhiana police women pick up drop helpline number viral to be from Nagpur
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
Começa aparecer a verdade sobre o massacre no pancadão de Paraisópolis. Isso o fantástico não mostra.
Publisher’s rating: Falso
Vídeo de una operación contra el blanqueo de dinero relacionado con ciudadanos chinos
Publisher’s rating: Falso
The review examines a Facebook video showing Spanish National Police officers finding €500 notes hidden inside women’s wedge shoes. The accompanying message claimed that this was how “the Chinese” declared their earnings to Spain’s tax authorities. The review says that claim misidentified the person involved in the operation. According to the review, the operation took place at Madrid-Barajas Airport. The person carrying the cash was a 29-year-old Dutch woman who had arrived from Brussels and was ultimately headed to Medellín, Colombia. She had concealed €180,000 inside four women’s wedge shoes in her suitcase. The review attributes these details to a Spanish National Police press release; the supplied excerpt does not include that release itself. The review also traces the video’s provenance: it says the footage used to spread the claim had been uploaded to the National Police’s YouTube account. Taken together, the reported identity and travel details contradict the claim that the footage shows Chinese citizens declaring their earnings. The excerpt describes the video and the claimed message, but does not detail any independent video-analysis procedure.
In den sozialen Netzwerken kursiert die Behauptung, dass die US-Autorin und angebliche Impfgegnerin Jennifer Jaynes mit zwei Kopfschüssen getötet worden sei. Ihre «offensichtliche Hinrichtung» trage die «Handschrift der Pharma-Mafia», heißt es in einem Artikel auf der Seite «Legitim.ch»
Publisher’s rating: Die Behauptung ist falsch. Jennifer Jaynes tötete sich laut offiziellen Informationen selbst.
The claim circulating on social media was that thriller author Jennifer Jaynes had been killed by two shots to the head, and that her death bore the “handwriting” of the pharmaceutical industry. The dpa review identifies the claim as appearing in an article on Legitim.ch. It reports that Jaynes died on 25 November 2019 in Hideaway Lake, Texas. To check what happened, dpa says it asked the Smith County Sheriff’s Office whether there had been a firearms investigation in Jaynes’s community that day. The sheriff’s spokesperson described a response to a 911 call at 10:49 a.m. concerning Jaynes, who had died from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound. That account directly contradicts the claim that she was killed by two shots. The review also gives context for the alleged vaccine-related motive: it says some people considered Jaynes vaccine-critical because of the subject matter of her books. But her partner, Burke Bryant, publicly rejected a connection between her death and the anti-vaccine movement, calling that connection a malicious rumor. The excerpts support the account of a single self-inflicted wound and provide no evidence for the alleged execution or pharmaceutical-industry motive.
UP resident Mohammad Nazeeruddin raped his own sister and niece and then killed them both by smothering their heads with bricks.
Publisher’s rating: Misleading
a helpline service started by the bengaluru city police
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The message under review said women could text a taxi or auto’s registration number to +91-9969777888 before boarding and receive an acknowledgment, after which the vehicle would be tracked. It presented this as a new service started by Bengaluru City Police. The review’s finding addresses that specific attribution—not whether the number had ever been used for a safety service elsewhere. (S1: “The message reads that taxi and autos could be tracked via GPS if commuters SMS the vehicle number on a particular phone number.”; “The claim that the helpline number has been launched by Bengaluru City Police is false.”) The review traced the number to a Mumbai Police initiative, not a Bengaluru launch. It reports that Mumbai Police began the service with MTNL on 8 March 2014, under the “Travel Safe When Alone” initiative, and that the service closed in March 2017. Thus, the circulating message used a real service’s number but attributed it to a different city’s police. (S1: “the initiative was started by the Mumbai Police back in 8 March 2014 (to mark Women’s Day) and was closed in March 2017.”; “The service was a joint venture between the MTNL and the Mumbai Police under their ‘Travel Safe When Alone’ initiative.”) For its checks, The Quint says it searched Google using the number and police-helpline keywords, then found reporting on the Mumbai initiative. It also cites a Bengaluru Police statement posted on 3 December: the police said the number did not belong to them and warned people not to believe or share the message. The review therefore distinguishes the service’s documented Mumbai history from the false claim that Bengaluru City Police had launched it. (S1: “On conducting a Google search using keywords ‘9969777888 police helpline service’, The Quint came across an article by the Economic Times which reported on the initiative started by the Mumbai Police.”; “The number does not belong to BCP People are requested not to believe or share this fake message.”)
Claim video of Hyderabad rape victims cremation rites
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
Mohammad Pasha, the accused in the Hyderabad veterinary doctor rape-murder case, is being beaten up by the police
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The claim concerned a video circulated as showing Mohammad Pasha, supposedly an accused in the Hyderabad veterinary doctor rape-murder case, being beaten by police. The review concludes that the man shown is not an accused in that case: it says the video instead relates to an alleged rape case in Chittoor. It also names the four Hyderabad-case accused as Mohammad Areef, Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen, and Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu. These details contradict the identification at the centre of the post’s claim. To investigate the video’s provenance, the review says it ran screenshots through Google Reverse Image Search and found similar visuals in a YouTube video uploaded by NTV Telugu on 26 November 2019. The review describes that footage as showing a man being beaten by police over an alleged rape of a 10-year-old girl. It also points to a Hindu report about an accused in a rape case being thrashed in Chittoor. The review’s account therefore places the footage in a different case and location, rather than the Hyderabad case named in the claim.
Claim: BJP men tied a calf in car and killed it
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The viral post alleged that a Rajasthan BJP-linked person tied a calf to a car and dragged it for 10 kilometres after it damaged the car’s headlight, killing it. Fact Crescendo examined the image and the claim that the calf had been beaten and killed. It noted that the calf’s body showed no visible injuries, then searched for reporting about the image and found a Hindi news report about the allegation involving BJP MLA Kailash Varma. According to the review, Varma said the image was genuine but the account shared with it was false. He said the calf had already died on the road between Jaipur and Bagru, and that it was badly decomposed. Because it could not be lifted for a funeral at the location, it was tied to a car and taken to a nearby pit for burial. The review reports that Varma supplied additional images showing the calf being untied, a pit being dug, the body being placed in it and covered with salt, and flowers being offered. The review also found a Facebook post dated July 18, 2018, containing images from the dragging through the burial and disputing the claim against the MLA. It concluded that the images showed a decomposed calf being transported for burial, not a calf killed by being dragged behind the car. The evidence described therefore supports the review’s finding that the viral post’s account was false.
Claim police officer in uniform thrashing an e-rickshaw driver
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
Nirbhaya Helpline number 9833312222
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The claim presented the Nirbhaya Helpline number 9833312222 as a number women could contact in an emergency. The review says the Mumbai Railway Police started the service in 2015 for the safety of women travelling on Mumbai’s trains—not as a general, currently available emergency helpline. It reports that the service was discontinued in February 2018, so the message did not provide an active helpline number when the review assessed it. To investigate, the reviewer searched for the number and its purpose, then checked reporting about its launch and an archived version of a Mumbai railway police webpage for information about its closure. The review says the Mumbai Mirror article corroborated the number’s original, city-train context, while the archived police webpage showed that the service had closed.
Claim video of Hyderabad rape accused Mohammad Pasha
Publisher’s rating: FALSE