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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

Fact CrescendoCrime & justice

Claim: Madras HC order to remand Maran brothers if needed

Publisher’s rating: TRUE

Fact Crescendo examined a Facebook post shared on June 18, 2019, which presented the claim as a breaking-news-style order to jail the Maran brothers in the BSNL case. The review says the post’s headline suggested a definite order, while its text said they could be jailed and questioned if necessary; it also did not identify the court. The publisher traced the post to a Madras High Court order from March 20, 2019, concerning Dayanidhi Maran, a former telecommunications minister, and his brother Kalanithi Maran, who were facing a CBI case over alleged misuse of BSNL connections. The review reports that the brothers had asked the High Court to quash the charges, and that the court declined to do so. It says the court indicated the CBI could, if needed, question the brothers in custody. Fact Crescendo states that it checked contemporary reporting by The Hindu and Dinamani and a report by Polimer TV, which it describes as accurately presenting the court’s conditional direction. The review also refers readers to the High Court judgment, though the judgment itself is not reproduced in the supplied excerpt. The evidence therefore supports the substance that the court allowed for custody-based questioning if required, but not the impression of an unconditional order to jail the brothers. The review notes that the Facebook post circulated the March ruling months later and concludes that its vague, overstated presentation could confuse readers, while rating the underlying news true.

YouturnCrime & justice

ஹிந்து சகோதரர்கள் 10,20 ஒன்றுக்கூடி முஸ்லீம் பெண்களை கூட்டு பாலியல் வன்புணர்வு செய்ய வேண்டும் என பிஜேபியின் மகிளா மோர்ச்சா தலைவர் சுனிதா சிங் சமூக வலைதளத்தில் பதிவிட்டு உள்ளார். ஒரு பெண்ணே மற்ற பெண்கள் மீதான பாலியல் வன்கொடுமையை செய்யுமாறு கூறுகிறார்.

Publisher’s rating: True

Fact CrescendoCrime & justice

Claim: Viral video of a Telangana doctor indulging in Molestation

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review investigates a Facebook post that presented CCTV footage as evidence of a doctor molesting women. It says the clip instead shows a doctor treating a patient, after which the woman gets up and verbally abuses him; the reviewer says the footage does not show the doctor committing the alleged act. The post was shared by Mahmad Tajudeen on June 24, 2019, and described the footage as showing a doctor engaging in sexual misconduct with multiple women. The review identifies the doctor as Sudhir Kumar, who worked at Balaji Hospital in Warangal, Telangana. It says the footage was connected to a complaint made against him the previous month, and reports that a search for news coverage found accounts that police had arrested five people, including the woman who made the complaint. According to the review, police investigation indicated that Nageswar Rao had devised a plot to damage Kumar’s reputation because of personal enmity, with others assisting. The review further says that the CCTV footage helped establish Kumar’s innocence and that the Indian Medical Association had filed a case against the woman for making a false complaint. It concludes that the Facebook post’s portrayal of the video was false. These are the original review’s reported findings; the supplied excerpt does not include the linked news reports themselves.

NewtralCrime & justice

Vídeo de un ataque con cuchillo en Alemania

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Newtral examined a tweet published on June 28 that attached footage of a knife attack in Germany and presented it as having happened in the preceding days. The review says the video was not current: it showed an attack in Ravensburg in September 2018, rather than an attack that week. This addresses the timing implied by the viral post, not whether the footage showed an attack at all. [S1: “El tuit, publicado el 28 de junio, adjunta un vídeo del ataque como si se hubiera producido en los últimos días, sin embargo no es actual. El vídeo corresponde a un ataque que tuvo lugar en septiembre de 2018 en la ciudad alemana de Ravensburg.”] The review reports that three people were seriously injured and that Konstanz police confirmed the incident at the time. It also says police attributed the attack to a psychotic episode, not terrorism. Thus, the misleading element described is recirculating older footage as a current attack; the account in the article identifies the event as a real, earlier incident. [S1: “En el mismo, tres personas resultaron heridas de gravedad. La policía de la región alemana confirmaba entonces el suceso.”; “la motivación del suceso no tuvo nada que ver con el terrorismo, sino que se debió a un ataque psicótico”]