‘Gem Granites’ Veeramani POCSO case: First charge sheet filed, Madras High Court told

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Gem Granites founder R. Veeramani at the POCSO court in Chennai. File | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

A special investigation team (SIT) probing the serial child sexual abuse cases against Gem Granties founder R. Veeramani has already filed the first charge sheet in one of the multiple cases registered against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and other laws, State Public Prosecutor (SPP) R. John Sathyan told the Madras High Court on Thursday (November 12, 2026).

Appearing before Justice V. Lakshminarayanan, the SPP said, the first charge sheet in the case was filed before the special court for POCSO cases in Chennai on Wednesday (November 11, 2026) and that the SIT intends to file multiple charge sheets in some of the cases. He told the court that the charge sheets in other crime numbers would also be filed one after another in the next 10 to 15 days.

After hearing him, the judge adjourned a couple of connected writ petitions pending before him to November 30, 2026. He also perused a status report filed on behalf of the SIT, explaining to the court the progress made in the investigation so far, and told the counsel present in the court that he was satisfied with the substantial work done in the sensitive case related to sexual exploitation of children.

The judge directed the High Court Registry to keep the status report in safe custody and produce it before the court during the next hearing. The SIT had been filing periodical status reports ever since R. Varaaki and advocate M.L. Ravi filed writ petitions (criminal) in the High Court, seeking the transfer of investigation in the POCSO cases against Veeramani from the State police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

After not finding any reason to order such transfer for the present, the judge had said that the SIT must be allowed to work in peace and called for periodical status reports on the ongoing investigation. When Mr. Varaaki’s counsel presented some evidence before the court on Thursday, the judge directed the petitioner to submit all those materials with the SIT instead of waiting for the court proceedings.

He also recorded the submission of the SPP that the SIT was also probing whether any of the police officials or others had ever tried to protect the prime accused Veeramani. When the judge wanted to know why the SIT should not conduct media briefings, the SPP said, the team was avoiding media interactions in order to ensure that sensitive information related to child sexual abuse does not get disclosed.

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