Slumdog star Rubina up for sale?

"Slumdog Millionaire" child star Rubina Ali's father plans to get rid of poverty and become a millionaire by selling his nine-year-old daughter, a British news website reported after conducting a sting operation.

Newsoftheworld.co.uk reports that in a bid to escape slum life, Rafiq Qureshi has put Rubina up for adoption, demanding 200,000 pounds.

Rafiq offered the shocking deal to the News of the World's undercover reporters posing as a wealthy family from Dubai.

He told the fake sheikh this week: "I have to consider what's best for me, my family and Rubina's future."

Rafiq tried to blame Hollywood bosses for forcing him to put his daughter up for sale.

As he tried to fix the illegal adoption deal, Rafiq declared: "We've got nothing out of this film."

Then, almost embarrassed to speak it out loud, he whispered to an accomplice the price tag he has put on his daughter: "It's 200,000 pounds", he was quoted as saying by the website.

That was an astonishing four-fold increase on his opening demand. But Rafiq's equally demanding brother Mohiuddin insisted: "The child is special now. This is not an ordinary child. This is an Oscar child!"

Rafiq, who stays in the Bandra slum sprawl of Mumbai, is reportedly desperate to cash in on his daughter's success in the multiple-Oscar winning film by selling her to the highest bidder.

First Published: Apr 19, 2009 12:30 IST