Subscribe
Two high-ranking police officials have been placed on compulsory wait and one on vacancy reserve after TNM reported that they were told about the child sexual assault allegations against Gem Granites owner R Veeramani almost a year before police officially acknowledged possessing such information.
The Tamil Nadu Home Department has placed A Arun IPS and N Kannan IPS on compulsory wait at the office of the state Director General of Police. Additionally, Koyambedu Range Assistant Commissioner of Police MA Yasmin has been moved to vacancy reserve.
The move came hours after TNM reported that both officers had received information regarding the case in 2024. Tamil Nadu Congress Committee’s (TNCC) Scheduled Caste wing president MP Ranjan Kumar told TNM that he learned of the alleged child sexual assault by Veeranamani in 2024. He had handed over a complaint regarding this to the then Additional Commissioner of Police, South, N Kannan.
When TNM reached out to Kannan regarding the revelation made by Ranjan Kumar, he said, “Since children were involved, I considered it a sensitive matter and escalated it to the Commissioner. He added that the then Commissioner of Police A Arun was briefed about it.
TNM then reached out to Arun for clarification, who said, “It’s a sensitive POCSO case. Please get comments from the present commissioner of police. That would be legally proper.”
Kannan currently serves as Commissioner of Coimbatore City. His post will be taken up as full additional charge by RV Ramya Bharati IPS, Inspector General of Police, West Zone, Coimbatore.
Ranjan alleged that he had also met the then Anti Vice Squad (AVS) Assistant Commissioner Yasmin at the old commissioner’s office in Egmore. He said, “I met her. All the questions they asked me were like: ‘Do you know the victims? Who are the victims? Can you bring them?’ That was basically what they kept asking.”
Arun is currently the Director of the Tamil Nadu Police Academy. In light of the action taken against him, Rajeev Kumar IPS, who serves as the Director General of Training, will hold full additional charge of the post of the Police Academy Director.
Further, Yasmin, who serves as the Assistant Commissioner of Police in the Koyambedu Range of the Greater Chennai Police has been “brought on to Chief Office vacancy reserve on administrative grounds for further postings,” an order from the DGP’s office said.
The present case concerns allegations that Veeramani sexually abused minor girls. The case reportedly came to the Chennai police’s attention in October 2025, when a child rights activist approached the AVS on October 6 with video evidence purportedly showing a minor girl being sexually assaulted.
According to the police, the person who brought the pen drive said the man in the video was Veeramani and that the assault had taken place at a house associated with his long-time associates Shanthi and her husband Mahendra Simhan. An FIR was registered on October 7.
Police said the footage had a 2019 CCTV timestamp. Veeramani, Shanthi and Mahendra were questioned but denied the allegations. Police subsequently struggled to identify or locate the girl seen in the video.
The investigation became controversial when the AVS sought to close the case.
In February 2026, police submitted a closure report to the Special POCSO Court, saying they could not identify or locate the girl and did not have sufficient evidence to proceed. The report also referred to difficulties in recovering the original recording and the lack of usable CCTV evidence.
The Special POCSO Court rejected the closure report and ordered further investigation. The court questioned how the police could fail to establish the crime scene when they had a video showing the alleged assault. The case was reopened in July 2026.
