Pollachi parallel? Gem Veeramani POCSO case spurs TVK vs DMK political row

What began as an anonymous pen-drive dropped at a child-rights office in Anna Nagar on October 6, 2025 has become Tamil Nadu’s most closely-watched POCSO investigation. This happened after a Special Court refused to accept the Chennai Police’s February 2026 bid to drop further action against granite baron R Veeramani, widening the probe from one unidentified girl in a 2019 video to multiple survivors, two alleged facilitators, and now the officers who first handled the file.

A political storm broke over the Gem Granites POCSO case after Electricity Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar compared the allegations against Veeramani to the Pollachi sexual-assault racket, while the DMK insisted it never abandoned the file. The argument has drawn fresh attention to a February 2026 Chennai police report that recommended dropping further action because investigators said they could not identify the child in a leaked video or gather corroborative evidence.

The report, submitted to the Special Court for exclusive trial of POCSO cases, is now at the centre of a larger contest: was the first investigation a lawful pause for want of proof, or an attempt to let a powerful accused walk away?

Nirmal Kumar told The Federal the case linked to Gem Granites Veeramani is “on par with the Pollachi incident”, and asked who allowed the accused to escape action after a case was registered in 2025. He has also said the matter could not have unfolded without the knowledge of then Chief Minister MK Stalin.

DMK denies withdrawing case

DMK legal wing secretary NR Elangovan rejected that accusation as “completely wrong”. He said the case was registered, not withdrawn, and that a note was filed stating that investigation would continue because the required documents and identification were not then available.

Also Read: Pollachi case: Stigma around sexual abuse plagues victims

“The investigation was not abandoned under the DMK government,” he said, accusing Nirmal Kumar of using a sensitive POCSO matter for by-election politics.

DMK party organisation secretary RS Bharathi separately alleged that Nirmal Kumar received more money from Veeramani.

Origins of the case

The closure report filed by Yasmin, Assistant Commissioner of Chennai Police, accessed by The Federal, shows the full story. On October 6, 2025, S Praveena Salamon, 42, State Coordinator of ICWO, told police that an unidentified man came to her office, handed over an office cover containing a letter and a pen drive, and left.

The letter, police recorded, alleged that Veeramani of Irayampettai, belonging to the granite trade, had confined a minor girl in the kitchen of a house associated with one Shanthi and sexually assaulted her, and that a video of the act was on the drive. A second clip on the same device, the complaint said, showed an unidentified man assaulting a minor girl in a separate room. Shanthi is the wife of Mahendra Simhan, MD of Gem Software Solutions.

Also Read: Pollachi sexual abuse case: Mahila court convicts all 9 accused, awards life term

Crime No 174/2025 of the Chennai Central Crime Branch was registered the next day under Sections 7 and 8 of the POCSO Act, 2012, naming Veeramani as A1 and Shanthi as A2.

Months later, the investigating officer filed a “further action dropped” report (RC No 01/RCS/2026 dated February 18, 2026) before the Special Judge at the Special Court for POCSO cases, Chennai. The reasons listed included: the man who delivered the pen drive could not be identified, there was no CCTV at the complainant’s office, and cameras in the surrounding stretch were not useful.

A house search conducted after notice to the magistrate yielded no supporting material linking the alleged crime to the premises. Cyber experts examined the DVR at the suspected location and reported that more than six years had passed, overwriting the older recording. Metadata indicated the seized video dated to 2019. A CCTNS check showed the named suspects had no prior recorded cases of this nature. The age of the girl seen in the footage could not be independently confirmed from available records.

Veeramani’s denial

Veeramani, examined under Section 35(3) BNSS, denied he was the man in the video, denied knowing the girl, and said the room shown was not inside his house. Shanthi and later witnesses including domestic workers named in the papers and a neighbour, Panchu Kadai Nagarajan, also said no outsiders were allowed into the house.

On that basis, police told the court there was “at present no ground to proceed” and classified the file as Further Action Dropped, while adding that action could be revived if new evidence appeared. A handwritten note on the same set of papers recorded the High Court’s November 25, 2025 directions in a cluster of Madurai Bench criminal original petitions and instructed the investigating officer to pursue the matter “with due diligence and in accordance with law” if additional evidence came to light.

Also Read: Pollachi sexual abuse case: ‘275 survivors, 1,100 videos’ a myth, says CBI

That is the document the political class is now reading in opposite directions. One side cites it as proof the case was being quietly closed. The other cites the same pages to argue the police never said the offence did not occur, only that they could not then prove who the child was, where the recording originated, or how to take the file to trial.

Special court orders further investigation

The Special POCSO Court did not accept the closure. Last month, it rejected the final report and ordered further investigation, giving the police a short window to complete the probe or report progress.

After that order, the investigation changed character. Greater Chennai Police later said they had identified Veeramani as the man in the footage, alleged that he had used a rented house in Teynampet managed by Shanthi and her husband Mahendra Simhan, and arrested the three. The original survivor described by police as about 12 years old at the time of the 2019 incident was traced and her statement was recorded before a Judicial Magistrate.

Also Read: After Pollachi, another sexual abuse scandal rocks Tamil Nadu

Investigators have since said more women and girls have come forward, and that devices seized in searches were sent for forensic examination.

2019 Pollachi case

The Pollachi case, which surfaced in 2019, was an organised racket in which young women were lured, assaulted, filmed, and blackmailed. After years of investigation that eventually went to the CBI, a Coimbatore Mahila Court in May 2025 convicted all nine accused and sentenced them to imprisonment for the remainder of their natural life. The court also directed compensation to survivors. That file had identified victims, recovered videos used for extortion, and produced a completed prosecution.

The Pollachi case has seen a criminal judgment. The Gem Veeramani case is an unfinished POCSO investigation that the police themselves once recommended dropping.

Veeramani inquiry scope widened

Now, Chennai Police have widened the Gem Granites POCSO inquiry beyond Veeramani and his alleged facilitators, Shanthi and Mahendra Simhan. They are now investigating who in the earlier city police hierarchy allowed the 2025 complaint to stall after a pen-drive video reached the Anti-Vice Squad and a “further action dropped” report was filed in February 2026.

Also Read: Kerala minor's rape: 44 arrested, 2 accused abroad

Following Chief Minister Vijay’s direction that no one connected with the case should be spared, Greater Chennai Police Commissioner A Amalraj has ordered an internal review of how the file was handled from the inspector level to senior officers then posted in the Commissionerate and Central Crime Branch.

Meanwhile, a separate team under Additional Commissioner of Chennai City Police, Narendran Nair IPS, is examining claims that large sums of money were involved, described in police-source briefings only as “several crores”, with no official figure yet confirmed.

Unanswered questions

The questions now crowding the Gem Veeramani file are as political as they are investigative: how did a POCSO case built on a 2019 video, registered in October 2025 against an 84-year-old granite magnate who built a multi-crore empire, headed industry bodies and was long treated as one of the architects of India’s stone trade, fail to leak even as a whisper in the news until a Special Court rejected the police bid to drop it?

And who, over the years, used money and political access to keep him beyond reach?

That fight has split the TVK and the DMK into mutual accusations.