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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.

6,854 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYCrime & justice

Kashmiri man beaten by Police.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a collage shared online as showing a Kashmiri man seriously injured after being beaten by police. FACTLY’s review says the image was not from Kashmir: it showed a young man in Iran who had been tortured in prison after being detained during a protest. The review therefore concludes that the image was falsely attributed to a Kashmiri man beaten by police. To investigate, the review reports conducting a reverse-image search. It says the search returned many results, including a tweet that used the same image and described the injured person as a young man in Iran who had been tortured and flogged in prison after his arrest during protests. That provenance contradicts the claim attached to the collage. The distinction is about what the image depicts and where it came from. The review does not establish that the image depicts an incident involving a Kashmiri man or police; it identifies the image as relating to a 2018 protest-arrest case in Iran.

The QuintCrime & justice

Image shows the killer of Murshidabad RSS worker and his family

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The image was shared with a Hindi caption claiming that the man shown had killed the Murshidabad RSS worker and his family. The Quint’s review says the Bengali text on the image translates as “Murderer and his father,” but identifies the people in the image as connected to a different case in Bangladesh—not to the Pal family killings in West Bengal. The review reports that the man in blue was identified as Mehedi Hasan Rasel, general secretary of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, and that the other person, whose face was circled, was Rasel’s father. It says Rasel was accused in the killing of Bangladeshi student Abrar Farhad. The image therefore does not establish that either person killed the Pal family; the review’s identification places the image in a separate context. The review describes two checks behind that conclusion: a Google reverse-image search, which found reports identifying Rasel, and a Facebook search using his name and university, which found an account under his name. It reports that the account had shared the image in June with the caption “Inspiration...Father.” That prior caption supports the review’s identification of the image as a father-and-son photograph, rather than a picture of the alleged Murshidabad killer and his father.

FACTLYCrime & justice

RSS men killed a youth in Bihar

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY examined a video shared with the claim that RSS men in Bihar killed a youth and left chanting “Jai Shri Ram.” Its account identifies the man being beaten as Sahil Raiyan and says the video showed a mob attacking him after he tried to escape following a shooting—not RSS men killing a youth. The review places the incident in Shivaji Chowk, Bhabua, in Kaimur district, Bihar, and reports that the person who died was Madhav Singh, whom Raiyan had shot in a land-related dispute. The review describes how it checked the claim: it searched Google using relevant keywords and found reporting by India Today and Prabhat Khabar. It also says FACTLY contacted the Kaimur (Bhabua) superintendent of police. According to the review, the officer said Raiyan was alive and in jail, contradicting the post’s assertion that the person beaten in the video had died. The review also cites an FIR based on a statement by Madhav Singh’s aunt. As described in the article, it says Singh was shot by Raiyan in a land-related dispute and that a crowd caught and beat Raiyan when he tried to escape. The review adds that the FIRs it examined did not mention a political-party connection, and that Bhabua police told Alt News there was no communal angle. The evidence presented therefore contradicts the post’s account of both who was beaten and why.

YouturnCrime & justice

பச்சிளம் குழந்தைகளைக் கடத்தி அவர்கள் கண்முன்னேயே அந்த குழந்தைகளின் உடல் உள் உறுப்புக்களை வெட்டி எடுத்து விலைக்கு விற்பவர்கள். ஆந்திராவில் பிடிபட்டவர்கள் தோலில் மாட்டிய பள்ளிக்கூடத்து பைகூட கழட்டப்படவில்லை. ஆனால் வயிற்றுக்குள் ஒழிந்திருக்கும் பாகங்கள் கழட்டப்பட்டு விட்ட நிலையில் கழுத்தறுபட்டு கண்திறந்து இறந்துகிடக்கிறது அந்த பச்சிளம் குழந்தை. ஒரு பெண் மற்றொரு குழந்தையின் கையையும் வாயையும் இறுகப்பிடித்தபடி மற்றொருவன் குழந்தையின் வயிற்றின் ஓரத்தை அழுத்தி வெட்டிக்கொண்டிருக்கும் காட்சி. அதனருகில் இரண்டு பாலகர்கள் கட்டுண்ட நிலையில் அறுபட காத்திருக்கின்றனர். எவ்வளவு படித்தென்ன?? பணத்தாசையில் குழந்தையின் கொஞ்சும் மொழிகூட பணமாக தெரிகிறதே!! பெற்றெடுக்க தவமிருந்து பெறும்போது மறுபிறவி எடுத்தவர்கள் பிள்ளைகளை வளர்க்கும்போது கண்ணும் கருத்துமாய் கவணம் காக்க வேண்டாமோ என் சக பெற்றோரே

Publisher’s rating: Fake

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

In den sozialen Netzwerken kursiert ein Bild zu den tödlichen Schüssen in Halle. Unter der Eilmeldung ist darauf ein Phantombild zu sehen mit der Überschrift «Wer kennt diesen Mann?». Es entsteht der Eindruck, dass das Phantombild den mutmaßlichen Täter in Halle zeigt.

Publisher’s rating: Das Bild ist irreführend. Mit dem Phantombild sucht die Polizei in Niedersachsen einen Verdächtigen nach einem versuchten Raub in Bückeburg.

The image was shared alongside an alert about the deadly shootings in Halle, creating the impression that the police sketch showed the suspected Halle attacker. The dpa review identifies a different origin: the German newspaper Bild used the sketch in an article about an attempted handbag robbery, and the sketch depicted the still-unknown suspect in that robbery. Police in the Nienburg/Schaumburg district said the robbery occurred in Bückeburg. The misleading association arose from how the Bild article was presented. Its headline and subheadline did not identify either the location or the offense. The article appeared on the same day as the attack in Halle, so the breaking-news alert appeared above the Bückeburg article. In that layout, the sketch could be mistaken for an image connected to Halle, even though the underlying police search concerned the separate robbery. The review also reports that several people commenting under the Facebook post pointed out that the sketch was not of the suspected Halle attacker. The cited account therefore distinguishes the image’s actual police-search context from the impression created by its placement with the Halle alert.