TN Cong leader tells TNM he alerted Chennai cop on Veeramani in November 2024

The child sexual assault case involving Gem Granites owner R Veeramani has taken a fresh twist as it emerges that the Chennai police were alerted to the crime as early as November 2024.

MP Ranjan Kumar, President of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee’s Scheduled Caste Department, told TNM that when the matter came to his knowledge in 2024, he sought an appointment with the then Additional Commissioner of Police, South, N Kannan, and handed over a complaint against Veeramani.

The current version of the police is that they only became aware of Veeramani’s alleged crimes in October 2025, when an activist approached them with a pen drive containing visuals of a purported minor girl being sexually assaulted.

Ranjan shared with TNM screenshots of his purported chats with Kannan, dated November 20, 2024, in which he asked for an appointment to give a complaint. The screenshot, however, does not make an explicit mention of the case or of Veeramani. 

After the initial messages, Ranjan Kumar asked for an appointment the next day.

He was asked to come the next day at 12.30 pm.

“I got an appointment with Additional Commissioner Kannan. I went there. After 10 days, Inspector Mahesh met me at Ashoka Hotel in Chennai and got details related to the case.” Ranjan identified Mahesh as an Inspector with the Anti-Vice Squad (AVS) of the Chennai police.

“A few days later, Mahesh sent me a message saying, ‘Please, Ranjan, send me the clippings for further enquiry’.”

Ranjan claims he later met the then AVS Assistant Commissioner Yasmin at the old commissioner’s office in Egmore, who later became the investigating officer in the case in October 2025 and who had filed the final report dropping further action in the case. 

“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,” Ranjan said.

When asked how he got the visuals, Ranjan Kumar claimed that Veeramani’s aide Shanthi, who is the wife of Mahendra Simhan, MD of Gem Software Solutions, invited him to his house and played the video on the TV to expose the wrongdoing of Veeramani.

“I came into contact with Shanthi first only around June or July 2024 over a land-related matter. Even then, I didn’t meet her directly. We spoke only over the phone,” he said. 

Ranjan said, “When I went to Shanthi’s house, she was explaining her side and speaking as though she and her husband were good people. Then she took me into one of the rooms in the house, made me sit there, gave me bajjis and switched on the television. She said, ‘Watch this. If you see this, you’ll understand. My husband suspected me and Veeramani. So he installed a video set-up to track us’. She made me watch the video and then left the room.”

“I recorded the video playing on her television on my phone,” Ranjan told TNM.

He said he consulted a lawyer and decided to file a complaint with the police.

He claimed that later a small political outfit’s leader called him complaining about Shanthi. (TNM will add his name in the story once he reacts to the allegations).

Ranjan said he submitted a formal complaint on November 21, 2024. In the complaint, he stated that Shanthi Mahendran, a friend of Veeramani, “brought several minor girl children, aged approximately 14 to 15 years” to his house. He also added that the children were from oppressed and marginalised communities, minorities, and Dalits.

“Video-recorded evidence of Veeramani sexually abusing minor girl children at Shanthi’s residence has been secretly recorded and handed over to us so that stringent action can be taken against Veeramani and Shanthi. The videos contain scenes of Veeramani keeping minor girl children in a bedroom, providing them with chocolates and sexually assaulting/abusing them,” he explained in the complaint.

Ranjan alleged that the police went back and forth for months without taking any action. He said that he also did not pursue it further. When asked why, he said, “I was in the (DMK-Congress) alliance which was in power then. Secondly, at that time I was expecting a seat in the upcoming Assembly election. Because of all that, the police made sure I didn’t pursue it further.”

Ranjan asked why the police were claiming that an activist handed over the visuals to them in October 2025. “But I had given the complaint a year before that. I had submitted all the details. I had given a proper, authentic complaint. They could have taken action based on my complaint. Secondly, they said they couldn’t identify Veeramani. I had specifically named Veeramani in my complaint. I had mentioned Shanthi’s name as well.”

Ranjan shared with TNM his chats from December 16, 2024 with Inspector Mahesh. The inspector asked for the videos.

Ranjan also shared screenshots of other chats with Mahesh. In one of the screenshots, Veeramani could be seen in a blue shirt with a girl who could be a minor. The screenshots indicate that the visuals were shot from a fixed camera angle, positioned to capture the acts. (TNM cannot authenticate the screenshots).

When TNM asked the then Additional Commissioner Kannan if Ranjan Kumar met him in November 2024 with a complaint against Veeramani, he first said he could not recollect immediately. “Mr Ranjan Kumar used to meet me frequently with various complaints. But I don’t remember if he came up with any petition on this,” he said.

Within a few minutes, he clarified that he had received the complaint from Ranjan Kumar. “Since children were involved, I considered it a sensitive matter and escalated it to the Commissioner,” he said, adding that the then Commissioner of Police A Arun was briefed about it.

“Ranjan Kumar had mentioned that an elderly man was involved in the matter. I had asked him about the victims, but he said he did not know them,” Kannan said. He also added that the case was not under him but under the Central Crime Branch (CCB).

When contacted, former Commissioner A Arun told TNM to get in touch with the present commissioner of police. “It’s a sensitive POCSO case. Please get comments from the present commissioner of police. That would be legally proper,” he said.

R Veeramani, founder of GEM Granites and the GEM Group of Companies, is a prominent figure in India’s granite industry. He is a lawyer by education. GEM Granites was established in 1972, with Veeramani later expanding the business into international markets.

The present case concerns allegations that Veeramani sexually abused minor girls. The case reportedly came to the attention of the Chennai police in October 2025, when a child rights activist approached the AVS on October 6 with a pen drive containing a video that purportedly showed 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.

The renewed investigation produced significant developments. 

During a search at Mahendra’s residence in Teynampet, police recovered what they described as the original visuals of the alleged assault from a digital device. Investigators also found indications of an attempt to destroy evidence. The seized devices were sent for forensic examination.

On August 29, 2026, police arrested Veeramani along with Shanthi and Mahendra. They were remanded in judicial custody.

Police alleged that Shanthi and Mahendra had facilitated the offences and were involved in the handling or destruction of evidence.