CHENNAI: The legal wing of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam on Saturday petitioned the Greater Chennai Police and the SIT, probing the sexual abuse of minors by granite baron R Veeramani (84), seeking an expanded investigation into the allegations of suppression and cover-up of complaints, including the roles of former Chief Minister MK Stalin, former Law minister S Regupathy and senior police officers.
Meanwhile, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has registered another case against the businessman, taking the total number of cases against him to five.
The SIT did not divulge any details of the complaint except that it is from a Chennai resident.
On the same day, a woman from Tiruvannamalai approached the SIT through their WhatsApp helpline 9345319676, alleging that Veeramani sexually abused her when she was a minor.
No case has been registered so far, as the police are still verifying the veracity of her complaint.
Veeramani, who ran GEM granites and a group of companies and his associates have been in prison since August 29.
A pendrive with the video was sent to the city police’s Immoral Trafficking Prevention Unit in October 2025 and a case was registered on October 7, 2025.
However, the city police filed a closure report in February 2026, stating that the video was unclear; the report was, however, rejected by a special court judge, forcing the police to begin their investigations again.
The police identified the elderly man in the video as Veeramani and began a probe. Another person, Ganesan (42), a former employee of Veermani, was arrested for being in possession of a video of Veermani sexually abusing a minor and not alerting the police.
The case has eventually been transferred to an all-woman SIT, supervised by the Greater Chennai Police Commissioner A Amalraj.
On Thursday, Amalraj had issued orders directing to detain Veeramani and two of his associates, Mahandra Simhan (63) and Shanthi (60), under the Goondas Act.
Inspector C Mahesh Kumar, who was part of the anti-vice squad (AVS) team that initially probed the complaint against Gem Granites chairman R Veeramani in 2025, has been transferred and placed on Vacancy Reserve (VR) with immediate effect on administrative grounds on Saturday.
Mahesh Kumar, who was serving as an Inspector at the Meenambakkam police station, has been directed to report to the police control room.
He had served as an AVS inspector in 2025 when an NGO submitted a complaint against Veeramani along with a pen drive containing a video clip that, according to the complaint, showed the businessman sexually abusing a minor girl.
The complaint was initially registered by the Chennai Central Crime Branch (CCB) and was later forwarded to AVS for investigation.
Mahesh Kumar was assigned as the investigating officer after the complaint was transferred to AVS.