Chennai Police Identify Survivor in POCSO Case Against Granite Baron Veeramani

Chennai Police have made a breakthrough in the investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of a minor by granite businessman R Veeramani, identifying the survivor and recording her statement before a Judicial Magistrate on Wednesday.

A special team probing the case registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act conducted extensive enquiries before tracing the survivor. According to a senior police officer, the woman was a minor when she was sexually exploited by Veeramani in 2019, and she has given a statement confirming both her identity and that of the accused.

Veeramani, chairman of the Gem group of companies and Gem Granites, was arraigned as the main accused on the basis of a video that allegedly showed him sexually abusing a minor. He was arrested along with two associates, Shanti and her husband Mahendra Simhan. The two were arrested on charges of tampering with evidence.

Because the survivor belongs to a Scheduled Caste community, investigators have added provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, to the POCSO case.

Police claim that more minor girls were exploited by the accused over a period of time, and efforts are on to identify them and record their statements. The victims were described as poor children whose education was funded by Veeramani or his associates.

Investigators are also examining a message sent by Shanti to Veeramani asking whether he remembered the death of a minor several years ago.

The case was first registered by the Anti-Vice Squad of the city police in October last year after an unidentified person handed over a storage device containing the video. Police later sought to drop further action, stating that the victim could not be identified and that no other evidence was found to corroborate the allegations. No CCTV footage could be obtained to confirm the movements of the accused or the victim in or around the scene of crime.

Although Veeramani and Shanti were examined earlier, they denied the allegations. The matter was reopened recently after a court refused to accept the closure report and ordered further investigation, leading to the arrest of the three accused.