Published Sep 25, 2026 | 5:02 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 25, 2026 | 5:44 PM
As GEM Granites expanded, Veeramani took on a series of positions in organisations representing exporters and the natural-stone industry.
Synopsis: The arrest of GEM Granites founder R Veeramani in the POCSO case for the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls has brought attention to his political connections and proximity to power. A lawyer who entered the granite business in the 1970s, Veeramani built GEM Granites into a major exporter and held senior positions in bodies representing the granite and export industries. His career brought him into contact with political leaders, Union Ministers, senior officials, foreign diplomats and business organisations.
Late last month, GEM Granites founder R Veeramani and two associates were arrested by the Anti-Vice Squad of the Greater Chennai Police, a year after a complaint alleged that he had abused minor girls at a house associated with one of the co-accused. The arrest came after POCSO special judge Padma Shanmugasundaram rejected a closure report filed by the police and ordered a detailed investigation.
The case has since taken several serious turns, with more survivors coming forward. Allegations of lapses in the police investigation have led to action against officers, including ADGP Arun and Coimbatore Police Commissioner Kannan, who oversaw the earlier probe.
There have also been reports that the police were informed of the alleged offences as early as November 2024 by Congress leader MP Ranjan Kumar. On September 25, a four-member all-woman Special Investigation Team has been formed to probe the allegations.
The previous DMK government has, meanwhile, faced allegations that it shielded Veeramani and others associated with the case. DMK chief and former Chief Minister MK Stalin has firmly denied the allegations, calling them “reprehensible”.
Veeramani’s connections do not stop with just the DMK. He has been seen meeting and sharing the stage at events with members of the present TVK government, as well as with members of the AIADMK when it was in power.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, GEM Granites contributed ₹1.02 crore to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund in 2021. A year later, Imperial Granites Pvt Ltd, part of the GEM Granites group, donated ₹1.05 crore to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Veeramani personally handed over the donation to then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in August 2022.
But who is R Veeramani? How did a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur build an export empire over five decades and, along the way, become an influential figure in India’s natural stone industry – regularly rubbing shoulders with the powerful in export bodies, chambers of commerce and industry councils, and with Union Ministers, senior bureaucrats, foreign diplomats and political leaders in Tamil Nadu?
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Before R Veeramani built the GEM Granites business, his family had ties with the Dravidian movement, according to his own account.
Then Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram presents an export award to Gem Granites chairman R. Veeramani at CAPEXIL’s 47th Annual General Meeting
In a 2023 article published in The Modern Rationalist, Veeramani wrote that his father, SP Rangaswamy of Tiruchengode, was a rationalist and follower of Periyar who later joined the DMK and became an activist.
He wrote that his father subsequently contested the Tiruchengode Assembly constituency as a DMK candidate.
In a 2009 interview with The New Indian Express, Veeramani recalled obtaining a law degree and practising at the Madras High Court before returning to business.
He said the decline of his father’s oil business led him towards granite and that he eventually suspended his legal practice in 1976.
His early business experiments included potato chips and magnetic iron before he concentrated on granite. He also spoke about developing contacts in Japan and building an export market for polished granite.
An India Today profile published in January 1991 said Veeramani had pooled ₹60,000 with his three brothers to enter the granite business when the industry was still relatively undeveloped. It put GEM Granites’ value at ₹36 crore, with annual exports of around ₹35 crore.
By then, Veeramani had also established important political and professional relationships, including one with veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram.
In the 2009 interview, Veeramani said government action had once suspended his quarry business and that he challenged the action in court with Chidambaram’s assistance, when the latter was still practising law.
On 8 October 2005, Chidambaram, the then Union Finance Minister, presented Veeramani with a top export award at CAPEXIL’s 47th annual general meeting in Chennai. A photograph from the event also shows then Minister of State for Commerce and Industry EVKS Elangovan.
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As GEM Granites expanded, Veeramani took on a series of positions in organisations representing exporters and the natural-stone industry.
He served as president of CAPEXIL and chairman of its Granite, Natural Stones and Products Panel. CAPEXIL’s records also identify him as its Southern Regional Chairman and chairman of the Natural Stones & Products Panel. He was listed as a member of the Board of Trade under the Ministry of Commerce and the Granite Development Council under the Ministry of Mines.
These positions put him in policy discussions on exports, mining and special economic zones.
In January 2003, The Economic Times reported the establishment of a new Export Promotion Council for Export-Oriented Units and Special Economic Zones, with Veeramani as its chairman. The report said the council was formed following recommendations made when Arun Shourie was handling the Commerce and Industry portfolio.
Veeramani told the newspaper that the council had received support from Shourie, then Minister of State for Commerce Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Commerce Secretary Dipak Chatterjee, Director-General of Foreign Trade Lalit Mansingh and senior Commerce Ministry officials.
The council was intended to represent EOUs and SEZ units and engage with the government on export policy. Veeramani used his position to press for specific changes affecting the industry.
In December 2008, at a CAPEXIL interaction in Chennai, he demanded government support for the stone industry during the global economic downturn. He sought relief on non-performing assets, interest and instalment payments, lower interest rates, and changes to mining-lease and royalty policies.
He also raised concerns about differences in State mining policies and called for changes to make the sector more competitive.
Veeramani was also involved in the development of India’s organised natural-stone industry.
FIGSI traces its origins to the All India Granite and Stone Association and identifies Veeramani as its founder president. The organisation credits him with helping establish STONA, the international stone exhibition in Bengaluru, which began in 1987.
His professional profile also says he instituted the Gem Granites Environment Award, which was distributed annually from 1991–92 through the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries in New Delhi.
A Government of India profile associated with the Centre for Development of Stones records that Veeramani received a special award during the 50th Independence anniversary celebrations for his contribution to mining and granite marketing.
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Decades after his father unsuccessfully contested an Assembly election on a DMK ticket, Veeramani was photographed with MK Stalin.
In 2009, shortly after Stalin became Tamil Nadu’s Deputy Chief Minister, The New Indian Express reported on a series of people calling on him. Veeramani was among them.
“I’m very happy you’re deputy chief minister. We’ll share our thoughts and together make Tamil Nadu the number one state,” Veeramani told Stalin, according to the report.
His documented political interactions, however, extend beyond the DMK.
In July 2026, Veeramani appeared at the launch of the book Vizhuntha Manithargal in Chennai alongside TVK Ministers D Logesh Tamilselvan and P Venkataramanan. Both ministers spoke at the event, at which Veeramani was also a speaker.
During the event, Tamilselvan could be heard referring to Veeramani as “our family friend” in a video widely circulated on social media.
Tamilselvan is the son of former Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker and AIADMK leader P Dhanapal. He joined the TVK in February 2026 and later became a Minister in the Vijay-led government.
Veeramani had also appeared in the public record during the former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s tenure.
In May 2015, following Jayalalithaa’s acquittal in the disproportionate-assets case, The New Indian Express listed GEM Granites chairman Veeramani among industrialists who sent greetings to the AIADMK leader.
A separate The New Indian Express report from February 2015, on Jayalalithaa’s birthday, also listed Veeramani among industrialists who greeted the former AIADMK supremo.
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Veeramani’s professional record places him in national and international business organisations and in institutions under the Union government.
According to the Centre for Development of Stones, he served as national president of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, president of the Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and president of the Indo-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industries.
His role in the Indo-American Chamber brought him into contact with U.S. diplomatic officials.
In 2009, U.S. Consul General Andrew T Simkin addressed an Indo-American Chamber event in Chennai at which Veeramani was a prominent participant. The New Indian Express reported Simkin praising Veeramani’s business achievements and his role in facilitating Indo-U.S. business relationships.
His listed positions include membership of the Board of Trade under the Ministry of Commerce and the Granite Development Council under the Ministry of Mines.
He is also listed as chairman of the Chemicals & Allied Products Export Promotion Council, founder chairman of the Export Promotion Council for EOUs and SEZ Units, founder president of the Federation of Indian Granite & Stone Industry, and chairman of the Granite Industry and Development Panel.
FIGSI’s profile similarly describes Veeramani as a founder of the industry’s national organisational structure and credits him with taking up policy issues concerning granite exports and mining with successive governments.
Separately, the Centre for Development of Stones records that Veeramani founded Anna Gem Science Park School in Chennai as a joint venture with Anna University. The school describes its governing structure as involving representatives of Anna University and GEM Granites.
His professional profile also records him as a member of the Planning and Monitoring Board of Vellore Institute of Technology.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
