R Veeramani, the multi-millionaire who now finds himself at the centre of a case of alleged sexual assault of minors, had a story of business setbacks and recovery that he would recount at industry gatherings. A lawyer practising in the Madras High Court, he entered the granite trade after his father’s oil business ran into troubles.
At a gathering in Chennai in 2009, he recalled leasing a quarry and securing Japanese buyers before the oil crisis of the early 1970s disrupted business. He fared no better in his ventures into potato chips and magnetic iron. He then returned to granite, putting his legal practice on hold in 1976. Three decades later, he told his audience, his company supplied stone to 60 countries, its products finding a place in buildings, monuments and memorials in India and abroad.
Founded in 1972, GEM Granites brought Veeramani both standing in India’s stone industry and passage into Tamil Nadu’s corridors of power, where he moved easily among politicians and film stars. He also became the founding president of the association, now known as the Federation of Indian Granite and Stone Industry.
Since his arrest on August 29, police have been examining allegations of sexual assault that they say may date back to the 1980s. The case has also put senior police officers under the scanner due to complaints which allegedly reached them long before the bizman was held.
Comparisons with American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein naturally followed, but police said that they had found no evidence of girls being sent to Veeramani’s friends or associates. A senior officer said their findings indicated that Veeramani alone had perpetrated the alleged abuse.
The scrutiny of Veeramani’s past has also exposed unanswered questions about how police handled complaints against him. The case, registered in October 2025 after a child rights activist submitted a video purportedly showing a minor being sexually assaulted, nearly ended in closure.
Veeramani denied being the man in the recording, while police said they could neither identify the girl nor establish her age. By February 2026, police were seeking to end the investigation.
The complainant received notice on February 18 that the case had been classified as “Further Action Dropped”. But Special POCSO Court judge S Padma refused to accept the closure report and ordered further probe, a move that would later earn her praise for keeping the case alive. Nearly 11 months after the FIR, Veeramani and two aides were arrested.
The girl was eventually traced, and by September 19, police had identified additional survivors and recorded their statements before the POCSO court. All had been minors when the alleged offences occurred. Police said most came from impoverished families. After a survivor was identified as belonging to a Scheduled Caste community, provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act were added.
Police explained the delay in arresting Veeramani by citing their inability to trace the girl in the video. A few days ago, it emerged that Congress functionary M P Ranjan Kumar had submitted a complaint and screenshots to then Additional Commissioner N Kannan on November 22, 2024, and sent the video to an Anti-Vice Squad inspector the following month, almost a year before the complaint with which police account had begun.
Kannan acknowledged that he had received a child sexual abuse complaint, though he could not recall whether it named Veeramani. It had been brought to then Commissioner A Arun’s attention and passed to the Anti-Vice Squad. Why that complaint did not lead to a registered case for nearly 11 months remains mystery.
Arun and Kannan were subsequently placed under compulsory wait, while M A Yasmin, the squad’s assistant commissioner during the earlier inquiry, was moved to Vacancy Reserve. An all-woman SIT headed by Additional Commissioner PC Thenmozhi has taken over the inquiry into the alleged offences, financial transactions and possible intermediaries.
Since Veeramani’s arrest, the case has grown murkier by the day as more characters have surfaced amid allegations of an extortion network built around the abuse. Police are still piecing together the connections.