(Reuters/Adnan Abidi) MUMBAI (Reuters) – Indian police in Mumbai are probing accusations that the father of a child star of the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire tried to sell his daughter for 200,000 pounds ($290,000).
The mother of nine-year-old Rubina Ali protested after a sting operation by a British tabloid alleged her father tried to sell her.
Police called Rubina Ali and her father, Rafiq Qureshi, to a police station on Sunday night and recorded their statements.
“On Sunday, Rubina’s mother Khurshid complained to us that her ex-husband was trying to sell her daughter, saying she saw some reports on television to that effect,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Nisar Tamboli told Reuters.
The film, a rags-to-riches romance about a slum boy
competing on a TV game show, won eight Academy Awards earlier this year but sparked controversy in parts of India.
The sting operation by the News of the World quickly made headlines in India.
Rubina, who starred as the youngest incarnation of the film’s heroine, Latika, lives with her father and step-mother in a teeming slum in the suburbs of the financial hub.
