The arrest of Jem Veeramani on charges of committing heinous acts against minor girls has drawn a sharp, unambiguous response from DMK president M. K. Stalin, who on Thursday, September 24, 2026, declared that no one — accomplice, protector, or bystander — should escape the full force of the law.

Stalin's Unequivocal Demand: No Cover, No Exceptions

In a strongly-worded post in Tamil, Stalin stated: 'Veeramani has been arrested on charges of inhuman and degrading acts against minor girls. Neither Veeramani, nor those who aided him, nor those who tried to protect him — regardless of what position they held — should escape. All must be brought before the law and given the maximum punishment. This is the position of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.'

He went further, expressing his personal wish — as a political leader, a family head, and a man of conscience — that the outcome of this case should serve as a deterrent so severe that no one ever contemplates such crimes again. The framing was deliberate: Stalin was not just speaking as a party chief, but as a citizen demanding accountability.

DMK Pushes Back Against Political Blame-Shifting

Stalin reserved pointed criticism for what he described as a group exploiting the case through 'petty political motives' — spreading what he called 'completely false slander' against the DMK via media channels. He was categorical: 'No order was issued under the DMK government to protect anyone in the Veeramani case.'

He argued that under DMK rule, accused persons in crimes against women and girls were arrested without bias, charge sheets were filed, and convictions were secured — all a matter of public record, he said, that 'cannot be denied.' The contrast he drew was with what he described as the current ruling party's conduct: cases where women had publicly levelled sexual assault allegations against party functionaries — including legislators and district secretaries — only for those cases to be settled through compromise rather than prosecution.

A Pattern as Old as Tamil Nadu's Political Rivalry

The back-and-forth Stalin describes is not new. Tamil Nadu's two dominant political blocs have traded accusations over the handling of sexual offence cases for decades, each claiming the other shields perpetrators when it suits electoral arithmetic. What is notable here is the timing: Stalin explicitly calls out attempts to 'use the suffering of minor girls as a tool for by-elections' — a signal that the case has already become a live flashpoint ahead of upcoming electoral contests.

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act provides the central legal framework for cases of this nature, mandating fast-track courts and strict timelines. Whether those mechanisms are deployed with full rigour — or quietly diluted — is precisely the accountability question Stalin is raising, and the one voters and civil society will be watching.

The Demand That Ends the Post

Stalin closed with a direct appeal: the ruling party must stop spreading 'utterly false slander through media' and using a child's trauma as political currency. His final line set a single, unambiguous benchmark — 'Justice for the affected minor girls must be the only goal for all of us.'

When a former chief minister of a major state frames a child protection case in those terms, the pressure on the judiciary, the police, and the current administration to act — and be seen to act — goes up a notch. Veeramani's arrest is the beginning. The verdict will be the test.