CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Police, who are conducting an inquiry after securing three-day custody of granite businessman R Veeramani (85) in a Pocso case, said the alleged sexual exploitation could date back to 2003 or even earlier.
Police came across a text message sent by one of the accused, M Shanthi (60), to Veeramani referring to a 2003 incident, in which she had mentioned the death by suicide of a minor girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted by him.
“Since the message was referring to an incident in 2003, we suspect it has been going on since then. We think it may even go back further,” a senior police officer told TNIE.
The case was registered by the CCB’s Anti-Trafficking Cell on October 7, 2025, after police received a USB drive containing a video purportedly showing the sexual abuse of a minor girl at a house in Teynampet.
Police identified Veeramani as the prime suspect and alleged that Shanthi and her husband Mahendra Simhan facilitated the offence. The three were booked under Sections 7, 8, 15(1) and 21(1) of the POCSO Act and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act.
The arrests were made nearly 11 months after the case was registered. Police had earlier cited difficulties in identifying and tracing the survivors as the reason for the delay. A closure report filed by police was rejected by a special POCSO court, which directed further investigation.
Following this, police identified multiple survivors who were minors at the time of the alleged offences and recorded their statements before court. Police have also invoked provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act after establishing that one of the survivors belongs to a Scheduled Caste community.
On Thursday, Veeramani was granted three-day police custody, which will end on Saturday, the officer said.