I want to stay with dad: 'Slumdog' star Rubina Ali
But mother files police complaint after a British tabloid reported that her father Rafiq Qureshi wanted to sell her for £200,000.
Like Slumdog Millionaire, the script was written in the United Kingdom and played out in Mumbai’s slums. But there was little that inspired hope.
Khursheed, biological mother of Rubina, 9, who played the youngest Latika in the Oscar-winning film, lodged a police complaint on Sunday against ex-husband Rafiq Qureshi for allegedly trying to sell the girl for £200,000 or Rs1.47 crore.
The complaint came amid media reports that Qureshi had agreed to sell the girl for adoption to an undercover reporter of British tabloid News of the World posing as a rich sheikh from Dubai.
Inspector Prakash Salunkhe of the Nirmal Nagar police station said: “We have recorded the statements of the father, biological mother, and the daughter. We have not registered a case yet.”
Despite the controversy, Rubina told police she wanted to stay with her father. “I want to remain with him,” she told reporters.
Qureshi, who now lives with his second wife Munni, confirmed that a person from the Middle East approached them saying he wanted to adopt their daughter because he as childless.
Qureshi said he met the “sheikh” “four days ago” at a five-star hotel. “They kept saying we will give you lot of benefits and it will be good for your daughter, but I declined,” he said. The reports that “I wanted to sell Rubina are false”, he said.
The tabloid published photographs of Rubina and her father along with its reporters and also posted a video of the sting operation titled ‘Oscar Girl For Sale’ on its website.
The newspaper claimed that Qureshi met its reporters with Rubina, his brother-in-law Rajan More, brother Mohiuddin, a friend Dinesh Dubey, and two young nephews.
The newspaper said it decided to conduct a sting after being informed by a former neighbour of the child star that Rubina’s father was desperate to sell his daughter to the highest bidder to escape poverty.
Qureshi, according to the tabloid, said he was forced to sell his daughter as he did not get anything from the makers of the multiple Oscar-winning film.
“We’ve got nothing out of this film. It’s [the cost] £200,000!” the newspaper quoted Qureshi as saying. His brother Mohiuddin allegedly justified the amount saying: “The child is special now. This is not an ordinary child. This is an Oscar child!”
As local media aired reports about the sting, Khursheed rushed to the Garib Nagar slums in Bandra (East). She had a fight with Rubina’s stepmother Munni in front of the media and then lodged a police complaint.
“I doubt the intention of my husband. He can do that [sell Rubina]. That is the reason I filed the police complaint as I feel my daughter is not safe,” she said.
She said that though her elder daughter Sanaa, 14, had told her about Qureshi’s intention around two weeks ago, “I did not believe he would actually agree to it.”
Qureshi has three children with Khursheed — Sanaa, Rubina, and Abbas, 8. He married Munni around eight months ago. Munni has four children from her previous marriage — Suraiya (16), Sanjida (12), Babu (10), and Irfan (8).