Chennai: Swinging into action as the case relating to the sexual assault of minors by mining baron R Veeramani assumes centerstage, the Tamil Nadu Government on Thursday placed under compulsory wait two top police office…

Chennai: Swinging into action as the case relating to the sexual assault of minors by mining baron R Veeramani assumes centerstage, the Tamil Nadu Government on Thursday placed under compulsory wait two top police officers, who were previously involved in the investigations into the case. A Arun, Additional Director General of Police, who was the Director of the Tamil Nadu Police Academy, and Dr N Kannan, the Commissioner of Coimbatore City Police, have been placed under Compulsory Wait at the office of the Director General of Police, an order signed by Home Secretary K Manivasan said.Another order by DGP Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal said M A Yasmin, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Koyambedu Range, has been brought on to Chief Office vacancy reserve on administrative grounds for further postings. Yasmin was the officer who filed a closure report in the case before a court. Tamil Nadu: CCB raids 5 locations linked to granite baron R Veeramani, others in POCSO caseThe stern action came after it emerged that a Congress leader alerted Kannan, then Additional Commissioner of Police (South), about the crimes by Veeramani in November 2024 and who in turn referred the complaint to his then boss Arun, who was the Commissioner of Police. It is alleged that the police under Arun sat on the complaint for about a year until October 2025 when the Chennai Police filed a case against Veeramani after it received a pen drive containing footage of the alleged assault. Till Wednesday, the police had maintained that they first knew about the case only in October 2025 after which they launched investigation and closed the case in February 2026. The closure report was however rejected by a POCSO court following which the police relaunched investigation into the case and arrested Veeramani and three of his accomplices, including a woman. It has now emerged that there has been an inaction on the side of the police in connection with the case despite a formal complaint from Ranjan Kumar, chief of the SC wing of Tamil Nadu Congress, in November 2024. Ranjan Kumar said on Thursday that he had met Kannan and complained about the alleged sexual assault of minors by Veeramani and sought action against him. It is believed that Kannan took the matter to Arun but no action was taken till October 2025. The action against the two policemen also comes at a time when the Veeramani case has become the latest flashpoint between the ruling TVK and the opposition DMK. “The officers have been placed under compulsory wait for their alleged inaction in the case. The government feels there should be no delay in acting against perpetrators of sexual offences against women and hence this action,” a source aware of the developments told DH.The source added that the probe into the case picked up pace after Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay intervened and asked Chennai Police Commissioner A Amalraj to get into the bottom of the case and spare none. TVK, DMK clash as POCSO probe widens into granite baron Veeramani scandalIn the past one month, police have not merely arrested Veeramani, but have picked up three of his close aides and remanded them to judicial custody. On Thursday, police sources told DH that three police officers, who handled the case on various occasions, have been summoned for questioning. Besides Veeramani, the police have arrested Mahendra Simhan, Managing Director of Gem Software Solutions, and his wife, Shanthi, and a close aide of Veeramani.Moving beyond allegations of the sexual assault of several minor girls at a bungalow in the heart of the city, the case is now being probed across multiple angles, including multi-crore financial transactions allegedly used to influence survivors and their families.The case has also triggered a massive outrage in Tamil Nadu with activists and several associations asking the police to ensure a free and fair probe is conducted and that Veeramani and his aides are brought to justice.

Source: Deccan Herald