SIT Searches Veeramani's Bungalow for Minor Victim's Buried Body

The searches followed a confession by one of Veeramani's drivers, Bala, that one of the girls who died during the sexual assault was buried in the garden

Chennai: SIT has stepped up the investigation of the POCSO case against granite baron R Veeramani and have started digging up the garden behind Veeramani's bungalow at Royapettah on Saturday, to find the body of a minor victim of the granite baron's sexual assault.

The searches followed a confession by one of his drivers, Bala, that one of the girls who died during the sexual assault was buried in the garden.

All the girls who were sexually assaulted by Veeramani were between the age group of 12 and 16. The bungalow was cordoned off by the police who are expected to come out with information on the results after the search.

The Tamil Nadu government has moved to the waiting list three women police officers - two deputy commissioners and an assistant commissioner - in charge of investigation.

The action comes immediately after the special investigation team (SIT), probing the sexual abuse cases, charged former Greater Chennai Police commissioner A Arun with various lapses during the DMK government.

The three police officers moved to the waitlist are Geetanjali, deputy commissioner of crimes against women and children division and Vanitha, deputy commissioner of the Avadi police headquarters and administration division. Similarly, Rajalakshmi, the assistant commissioner of the prostitution prevention division during the investigation of the Gem Veeramani case, has been added to the waiting list.

The action comes after charges of negligence surfaced in the investigation of the cases against Veeramani by the officers who initially probed the case. Besides investigating the charges against Veeramani, SIT is also going into the charges of police officials not taking up the cases properly.

Already, former commissioner Arun has been booked by SIT on charges of falsification of records, causing the disappearance of evidence and not taking on record information relating to a cognisable offence. Besides the former commissioner, inspector general of police A. Radhika, too, had been charged in the case.

The first POCSO case was filed against Veeramani in October 2025. After investigating the case for about four months, the police filed a report in the special court in February, recommending that further action should be dropped in the case. The police who examined a digital video recorder said they could not recover the original recording or any other relevant footage. They also said they were unable to identify the victim and there were no grounds to proceed further. However, POCSO court judge Padmavathy Shanmugasundaram rejected the report and ordered a fresh investigation.

Amidst questions on why the Chennai police tried to close the case against the industrial baron having several crores of money, the Tamil Nadu government in the third week of September removed Arun from his post of head of Tamil Nadu Police Academy in Unamancheri and brought him under compulsory wait.

Besides, Coimbatore commissioner of police N. Kannan was also removed from his post and brought under compulsory wait. Apart from him, assistant commissioner of police Yasmin of Koyambedu sub-division was also placed under vacancy reserve. Yasmin was serving in the anti-vice squad, investigating the complaint against Veeramani.

The first chargesheet in the case was filed on November 11 and SIT is preparing to file more chargesheets in the next 10 to 15 days.