Chennai, October 23 — Archana Veeramani, the daughter of jailed granite businessman R. Veeramani, was taken off a Singapore-bound flight at Chennai International Airport on Friday and detained for questioning by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), sources said. Officials said she had completed immigration formalities and boarded the 2.20 pm flight when she was stopped, following an alert from the SIT investigating the cases registered against her father.
Source: PTI via India Today (carried by News89)
Airport authorities facilitated her removal from the aircraft after the SIT alert, and the flight subsequently departed for Singapore at 2.32 pm without her. She was questioned briefly at the airport before being taken away in a police vehicle.
Source: Mirror Now
Probe into alleged financial cover-up
The detention is part of a wider investigation into alleged financial transactions intended to shield R. Veeramani from prosecution. Police suspect Archana Veeramani has crucial information about a series of cash and gold transactions that were allegedly carried out to conceal the allegations against her father and protect him after the first complaint was filed in November 2024. These are allegations under investigation; her formal arrest status was not confirmed in official statements.
Source: PTI via India Today (carried by News89)
Police are also looking for her brother, Prakash, in connection with the suspected financial cover-up, and authorities have initiated a Blue Corner Notice for another associate who is believed to have fled to the United Kingdom.
Source: PTI via India Today (carried by News89)
The case against her father
R. Veeramani, 84, the chairman of Gem Granites, is lodged in Puzhal Central Prison. He faces at least seven cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act over the alleged sexual abuse of several minor girls. The allegations are under investigation and have not been adjudicated; no minor is named or identified in this report. According to Nation Press, ten girls have filed complaints resulting in seven POCSO cases, Veeramani has been formally arrested in four of them, and he is also held under the Goondas Act. His company manager, Sakthivel, was arrested by the SIT on October 18.
Source: Nation Press
The SIT is also examining Veeramani's alleged connection to the suicide of a minor in 2004, PTI reported, citing sources. What happens next will hinge on whether prosecutors seek formal custody of Archana Veeramani as the financial-cover-up inquiry expands.