Police on Friday solved the mystery of a missing 22-year-old who had worked as actor Asin’s assistant. Acting on a tip-off, a police sub-inspector and a constable, disguised as junior character artistes, maintained a surveillance at a film producer’s office in KK Nagar. The assistant was nabbed there and handed over to his mother.

“We formed special teams to nab Muthukumaraswamy. Teams in Mumbai tracked his movements. While questioning him, he admitted that Asin had no role in the episode. He had gone underground after the police launched a hunt for him,” superintendent of police (Tiruvallur) M C Sarangan told TOI.

“We collected his bank account and mobile phone numbers from his friends in Mumbai. We began monitoring his movements by tracking his mobile phone number. He had withdrawn money from an ATM in Tirupati, Shirdi, Delhi, Rishikesh and Kolkata. During the past week, his location was identified as Chennai,” deputy superintendent of police (Ponneri) M Rangarajan said.

Sampath Kumar, who co-produced Ghajini, informed the police on Thursday that Muthukumaraswamy had contacted him for a job. “Immediately, we sent sub-inspector Kumar and constable Thirumurugan in the guise of character artistes. I was sitting inside a car parked outside and watched his movements. On Friday morning, Muthukumaraswamy came to the office and was caught,” Rangarajan explained.

On March 17, Sudalaivadivu, Muthukumaraswamy’s mother had approached the suburban police commissionerate seeking their help in tracing their son. In her complaint she said that her son had gone with Asin to Mumbai for a film shoot. Muthukumaraswamy had worked as Asin’s assistant for four years. Sudalaivadivu contacted the Ghajini star but there apperently was no proper response’ from Asin.

Sudalaivadivu also produced a copy of the statement Asin’s father Joseph Thottumkal had given to the Oshiwara police station in Mumbai stating that Muthukumaraswamy had quit the job on January 21, 2009. “He wanted to come with us to Mumbai. He had problems with the language and voluntarily resigned in January. We have all the settlement vouchers,” Thottumkal had said.

Police said that if Asin lodged a complaint against Muthukumaraswamy for extortion or cheating, they would book a separate case against him.

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