‘Gem’ Veeramani POCSO Act case: SIT arraigns IPS officers ADGP Arun and IGP Radhika for lapses in probe

Additional Director-General of Police A. Arun and other police officers were booked under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and POCSO Act. (File photo)

Additional Director-General of Police A. Arun is among the seven police officers arraigned by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to probe the child sexual abuse cases against Gem Granites owner R. Veeramani.

Besides Arun, who was the former Chennai Police Commissioner, Inspector-General of Police A. Radhika and four other police officers have been named as accused in a case registered in October 2025. Most of these officers have already been transferred without a posting and kept under Vacancy Reserve, police sources said on Friday.

The police officers served in Greater Chennai Police in different capacities when the first complaint of child sexual abuse was reported, and they supervised or investigated the case at different stages. The SIT has accused them of serious lapses in the probe.

On November 22, 2024, the then Tamil Nadu Congress Committee’s Scheduled Caste Department leader M.P. Ranjan Kumar submitted a written complaint seeking action against Veeramani and others for sexually exploiting minor girls, most of them belonging to the Below the Poverty Line category, Minority and Scheduled Caste communities.

Though he submitted screenshots and video evidence of the offence, no case was registered by the Central Crime Branch which took up the matter for investigation. Later, a case was registered based on a new complaint purportedly received from an anonymous person in November 2025, the sources said.

In February 2026, a closure report was filed in the Special Court for POCSO Act cases stating the victim in the video could not be identified and also that field verifications did not point to any suspicious activity in the alleged scene of crime. However, the judge refused to accept the closure report and order a fresh investigation into the case.

After the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK)-led government came to power and posted a new set of officers to the Greater Chennai Police, Veeramani, his associate Shanthi and her husband Mahendra Simhan were arrested by the CCB in August, 2026. Investigators identified the victim in the video, the sources said.

Considering the sensitive nature of the case, the Director-General of Police and Head of the Police Force constituted the SIT comprising women police officers to conduct further investigation.

More victims came forward to lodge complaints against Veeramani. So far, seven cases under the POCSO Act and one case of abetment to suicide of a child in 2004 have been registered against the octogenarian businessman and his associates, employees, and others.

The SIT accused the then Commissioner of Police and other officers who supervised or conducted investigation of falsification of records, causing disappearance of evidence and not taking on record information relating to a cognisable offence. The police officials were booked under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and POCSO Act, the sources said.