Senior IPS officers A Arun and N Kannan
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu govt on Thursday placed two senior IPS officers, A Arun and N Kannan, on compulsory wait amid an inquiry into the handling of the Pocso case against Gem Granites chairman R Veeramani, who was arrested along with two associates on Aug 29. The ACP Yasmin had submitted the closure report against Veeramani before the court concerned on Feb 9, 2026. Congress functionary M P Ranjan Kumar has claimed that he submitted a complaint against Veeramani and Shanthi to the Chennai police in November 2024 and later shared a video with an Anti-Vice Squad inspector. Veeramani, Shanthi and her husband Mahendra Simhan were arrested on Aug 29.
Arun, additional director general of police and director of the Tamil Nadu Police Academy at Oonamanchery, and Kannan, inspector general of police and commissioner of police, Coimbatore city, were brought under compulsory wait with immediate effect, according to a govt order. Rajeev Kumar, DGP (training), was given full additional charge of the police academy, while IG R V Ramya Bharathi was given additional charge as Coimbatore city police commissioner. Arun was serving in a senior Chennai police position when the video was submitted, while Kannan was serving as a senior city police officer when a complaint was reportedly brought to his attention.
Police subsequently identified multiple survivors and recorded their statements before the court. Assistant commissioner of police Yasmin of Koyambedu sub-division has also been placed under vacancy reserve as per the orders of the Tamil Nadu director-general of police (DGP) Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal on Thursday.
The action followed scrutiny of the manner in which the case was handled after a video purportedly showing the sexual assault of a minor girl was submitted to the Anti-Vice Squad in 2025. The police had subsequently filed a report seeking to drop further action, but a special POCSO court rejected the closure attempt and ordered further investigation.