Chennai, Nov 13:
Former Chennai Police Commissioner A Arun IPS has been named as an accused in the Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) probe into the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls by GEM Granites founder R Veeramani. The chargesheet, filed before the Special Court for Exclusive Trial of POCSO Cases in Chennai on November 11, also names former Anti-Vice Squad Assistant Commissioner M A Yasmin and five other police personnel. The officers have been booked under Section 21 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which deals with failure to report or record a child sexual abuse offence, and Sections 199, 235 and 238 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), relating to disobedience of legal directions and offences involving false evidence and disappearance of evidence.
The development has brought renewed scrutiny to the handling of a complaint that had allegedly reached senior Chennai police officials nearly a year before the case was formally registered. Tamilnadu Congress Committee’s Scheduled Caste wing chief Ranjan Kumar had stated that he submitted a complaint against Veeramani to the then Additional Commissioner of Police (South), N Kannan, on November 21, 2024. According to Kumar, he had also shared video clips with the Anti-Vice Squad and met its then Assistant Commissioner, Yasmin.
Kannan subsequently confirmed that he had received the complaint and forwarded it to the then Chennai Police Commissioner A Arun. He reportedly said that he considered the matter sensitive because it involved children and escalated it to the Commissioner. However, no FIR was registered at that stage.
The case came formally to the attention of the police in October 2025, when a child rights activist approached the Anti-Vice Squad with a pen drive containing footage purportedly showing the sexual assault of a minor girl. An FIR was registered on October 7, 2025. The initial investigation, however, failed to identify or trace the girl seen in the footage. In February 2026, the police filed a closure report before the Special POCSO Court, citing difficulties in identifying the survivor and a lack of sufficient evidence to proceed.
The court rejected the closure report and directed further investigation, questioning how the alleged crime scene could not be established despite the availability of video footage. The case was subsequently reopened in July 2026. A renewed investigation led to the recovery of what the police described as the original visuals of the alleged assault from a digital device during a search at the residence of Veeramani’s associate Mahendra Simhan in Teynampet. Investigators also examined indications of possible evidence destruction.
Veeramani, along with Shanthi and Mahendra Simhan, was arrested on August 29, 2026. The investigation later identified the girl in the footage, and her statement was recorded before a Judicial Magistrate. Several other survivors subsequently came forward, leading to the registration of additional cases. An all-woman SIT was constituted to investigate the allegations and related matters.
As the controversy over the handling of the earlier complaint intensified, the Tamilnadu government placed Arun and Kannan on compulsory wait in September 2026. Arun, an ADGP-rank officer, had by then been serving as Director of the Tamil Nadu Police Academy, while Kannan was serving as Coimbatore City Police Commissioner. The SIT questioned Arun for more than three hours on October 9, seeking details about the action taken after the complaint was allegedly brought to the senior officers’ attention. Kannan was also questioned as part of the investigation.
The latest chargesheet relates to Crime No. 11/2026, registered on September 27, 2026, following a complaint by the mother of a 14-year-old girl from a Scheduled Caste community. According to the police, Veeramani sexually abused the minor, while his drivers, Parthiban and Babu, allegedly knew about the offence and transported the child to his premises. The approximately 720-page chargesheet lists 40 witnesses and was filed within 46 days of the case being registered.
The then Additional Commissioner N Kannan has not been named as an accused in this chargesheet. Police sources have indicated that his role was limited to receiving the complaint from Ranjan Kumar and forwarding it to the then Commissioner. The naming of Arun and other police personnel, however, marks a significant development in the investigation, which is now examining not only the alleged offences against minors but also the response of police officials who were reportedly alerted earlier.