“R Veeramani is senior-most exporter of granite in India, he is having offices in 86 countries… he’s a top-most businessman… one of the finest gentlemen supporting this movement (sic).”
This gushing introduction to R Veeramani was made at a 2017 World Tamil Economic Conference in Durban by its president, VRS Sampath, and is typical of the public image the businessman used to enjoy: a pioneer of the country’s granite export sector, a well-networked entrepreneur, the head of multiple industry chambers and a member of government bodies. His arrest in late August exposed a much darker side: the octogenarian now stands accused of sexually assaulting a minor. After his arrest, more survivors, mostly from marginalised backgrounds, have come forward with similar accusations against him and the police have widened the probe.
When contacted, some former business acquaintances said they were astonished at the recent allegations against Veeramani. “Everyone is shocked at the case,” said Ishwinder Singh, president, Federation of Indian Granite and Stone Industry (FIGSI) – an organisation Veeramani founded in 1983. Many others in the industry declined to comment.
Based on multiple conversations, public speeches and company records, what emerges is the picture of a successful businessman who once dominated the industry he shaped, was well-connected politically and enjoyed considerable clout in his heyday – and who is now in Chennai’s Puzhal Central Prison with his associates accused of aiding him in the crime, while the investigation is under way.
Lawyer to businessman
Rangaswami Veeramani grew up in Tiruchengode in western Tamil Nadu, today part of Namakkal district. According to accounts he shared at an industry association meeting in 2012 in Chennai and in the publication The Modern Rationalist, his father, SP Rangaswami, ran a peanut oil business and was also active in politics, becoming a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) activist and contesting Assembly elections from the Tiruchengode seat.
The family belongs to the Kongu Vellala Gounder community, an influential group dominant in western Tamil Nadu. A land-owning community which used to be heavily involved in the extraction of minerals till the sector faced government restrictions, members in the region today dominate the blue metals (crushed stone aggregate used in construction) and brick kiln sectors, while in Namakkal, they dominate the poultry industry, according to Sivakumar, a Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) functionary based in the region.
Sivakumar said that because of the influence they command, both the DMK and AIADMK (All India Anna DMK) would typically allot 6-7 ministerial portfolios to the community when forming the government. “Business dealings cut across party lines and take place regardless of which party is in power,” he added. The Gounder community has a number of sub-groups or clans, called koottams, with Veeramani’s family hailing from the ‘kaadu koottam’. There is a strong support network within koottams, useful in politics and business.
Veeramani has three brothers and a sister, Saradamani, who was married to the late DMK MP S Kandappan. Along with Veeramani, there are three other names listed as promoters and directors in his flagship company, Gem Granites Pvt Ltd, who, together with him, hold 100% stake, and are possibly his brothers: Salem Rangasamy Kumar, Sekar Rangaswamy and Salem Rangasamy Asaithambi.
Before he entered the granite export business, where he made his fortune, Veeramani trained as a lawyer and practised in the Madras High Court. In another speech for the World Tamils Economic Conference, this time in 2021, he says that in the 11 years he practised as a lawyer, he was also “the DMK advocate… I handled hundreds of cases for free and we had to do that all those days.” In the speech, he refers to G Viswanathan in the audience, the founder of Vellore Institute of Technology, who has successfully contested elections as a DMK and an AIADMK candidate, as a friend and fellow lawyer, adding “Politically also, we see (sic) the same thing.”
A former DMK functionary from Coimbatore, who requested not to be named, said that Veeramani’s family was not very well off, owning 1-2 acres of land in their village. It was after his sister’s marriage to the DMK MP that he moved to Chennai. Veeramani was introduced to the granite sector through a client, he said. “He made his name by marketing and exporting red granite, which came to be known as ‘Gem red granite’. They owned about 1,000 acres in Ilkal in Karnataka, near Andhra and had a kind of exclusivity over this stone, which became very popular abroad,” he added.
A flattering May 2024 profile of Veeramani in a FIGSI publication says he set up Gem Granites in 1972. Company filings accessed through business intelligence platform Tracxn, however, mention the date of incorporation as November 1982. In multiple speeches, he has spoken about how he trained in Sweden and developed the market for coloured stones from India for buildings at a time when everyone else was exporting only grey and black stones for tombstones.
A fellow entrepreneur in the granite mining and export sector, who requested not to be named, said Veeramani applied for mining leases for revenue land and built his empire, enjoying a monopoly. The former DMK functionary said that in the ‘80s and ‘90s, permits were made manually and the Gem group would use a ‘1+3’ system – using one permit, they would transport three loads of granite, he said. Multiple businessmen spoke of Veeramani as a first-mover in the granite mining and export sector, with others following in his footsteps seeing his success. “He was one of the pioneers in granite mining and had mines in many states, including Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, etc – he used to be very big,” said FIGSI’s Singh.
Veeramani also diversified into other sectors like hospitality, setting up a hotel in Ooty which used to be run by the Holiday Inn chain, and producing magnets for the electronics industry, closing that business once liberalisation kicked in. Along the way, he headed multiple business chambers and industry bodies at different points, including the Indo Russian Chamber of Commerce & Industries and the Indo Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and was the founding chairman of the Export Promotion Council for EOUs & SEZ Units, claiming in a speech that he had given the government the idea for special economic zones (SEZs).
Veeramani also headed CAPEXIL – Chemical and Allied Export Promotion Council – which was set up by the Union Commerce Ministry and acted as a lobbying body – for multiple terms. “He was the CAPEXIL chairman forever, which showed he could successfully lobby for his sector,” said the granite mining entrepreneur quoted earlier.
All of this attests to his position as a well-networked businessman with deep connections. In the ‘90s, he also helped set up the Anna GEM Science Park School in Chennai in collaboration with Anna University, of which he continues to be patron, according to the school site. While his biography on the website of the Centre for Development Stones, of which he’s the chairman, states that he’s a member of the Planning and Monitoring Board of Vellore Institute of Technology, the institute’s own website currently states: “There is no separate Planning and Monitoring Committee at VIT”.
But while Veeramani seemed to have dominated the granite export industry earlier, filings of Gem Granites Pvt Ltd show a profit of Rs 41.68 lakh in 2024-25 on a revenue of Rs 14 crore. Even 10 years ago, in FY15, the company reported a surprisingly small annual profit of Rs 8.4 lakh on revenue of Rs 15 crore, according to filings accessed via Tracxn. Veeramani is a director, partner or managing director in 11 other active entities, including Celia Leather Pvt Ltd, India Realty Excellence Fund and Gem Stone Beach Resorts Pvt Ltd.
Another industry acquaintance said that differences cropped among the four brothers on how to run the business, which eventually led to its “downfall”. One of the brothers moved into the real estate business, another got into sugar mills and the granite export business has not been very active in the last couple of years, he said. Veeramani’s children – a son, who is in the US, and a daughter – were not interested in the business either, according to the acquaintance.
Political networker to hot potato
As Veeramani went about setting up his business empire, it is also likely that he forged important political connections right from his early days – an impression he himself helped build. In his speech in 2012, he mentions that when the government suspended his quarry business in the ‘70s, he was able to get the suspension revoked with the help of former Union Minister “P Chidamabaram, who was a practising lawyer then.” In a 2023 edition of The Modern Rationalist, a monthly founded by Dravidian icon Periyar, R Veeramani wrote a column in praise of his namesake K Veeramani, president of the Dravidar Kazhagam and the publication’s editor, where he says his father was a follower of Periyar. He has also been photographed sharing the stage with multiple political leaders.
The case is now mired in a political controversy, with the current Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government accusing its predecessor, the DMK, of covering up the crime to protect the accused. The DMK has denied the charges that it tried to stop the investigation, with former chief minister MK Stalin issuing a statement on Friday, September 25 that no order had been issued by his government to protect Veeramani, and that anyone who connived with him or tried to protect him should not be spared.
After multiple posts and images on social media about Veeramani’s purported links to the DMK, visuals of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)-accused sharing stage with TVK leaders are now being circulated on social media. If political parties were once keen to court the erstwhile ‘granite baron’, all efforts are now under way to distance themselves from the arrested entrepreneur.
The initial investigation attracted condemnation after it emerged that the Chennai police tried to close the case in February this year, just a few months after it began its probe in October 2025. That was when a child rights activist approached the police with a pen drive which she said was given to her by an unidentified person and had visuals of a minor girl being sexually assaulted. The activist told the police that there was a note with the pen drive which said that the man in the video was Veeramani and that the assault took place at the residence of Mahendra Simhan, MD of Gem Software Solutions, and his wife, Shanthi.
It was only after the intervention of a special POCSO court judge who refused to accept the police’s closure report that the case was reopened in July, and Veeramani, Mahendra and Shanthi were finally arrested in August.
On Thursday, after The News Minute broke the story that two high-ranking police officers had received information about the child sexual assault allegations against Veeramani almost a year before the complaint was registered, the officers were placed on compulsory reserve. Another officer was moved to the vacancy reserve. Tamil Nadu Congress Committee’s Scheduled Caste Department president MP Ranjan Kumar told TNM that he had met a senior police officer in November 2024 and handed over a complaint against Veeramani. Till then, the police had maintained that they were aware of the accusations against Veeramani only in October 2025, when the child rights activist approached them. On Friday, the Tamil Nadu police announced the formation of a Special Investigation Team consisting of women officers to investigate the case.
All eyes are now on the Chennai Police, on how the investigation will be conducted and whether everyone involved in the heinous crime – both its conduct and its concealment – will be brought to justice.
Indulekha Aravind is an independent journalist based in Bengaluru.