Father tries to sell girl for 200 K!
THE poverty-stricken father of Slumdog Millionaire child star Rubina Ali plans to become a millionaire himself-by SELLING his nine-year-old daughter.
In a bid to escape India's real-life slums, Rafiq Qureshi put angel-faced darling of the Oscars Rubina up for adoption, demanding millions of rupees worth £200,000.
As he offered the shocking deal to the News of the World's undercover fake sheik this week, Rafiq declared: "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, real-life slum dweller 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 innocent young daughter: "It's £200,000!"
That was an astonishing FOURFOLD 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!"
He sees it as his family's escape route from the notorious Bandra slum sprawl of Mumbai.
Rafiq revealed his scheme to undercover News of the World reporters posing as a wealthy family from Dubai.
We travelled to Mumbai to expose the illegal sale after a tip-off from a concerned close family friend and former neighbour.
Shockingly, this sort of transaction is far from unusual in an impoverished nation where human life comes cheap and children are often treated as a commodity.
Rubina won the hearts of film-lovers around the world playing young Latika in British director Danny Boyle's movie that picked up eight Oscars and a pile of other glittering awards. It tells the rags to riches story of a young man from the slums who wins the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Our informant, now a city tour guide, told us: "Rubina's family are furious that despite the film doing so well and their pretty daughter becoming so famous, they are still living in such rough conditions.
"They were approached by one wealthy Middle Eastern family who saw their plight in an item on Al Jazeera TV. The couple expressed an interest in adopting young Rubina and her parents' eyes lit up.
"Dad Rafiq is streetwise and knows that soon his daughter's success will be forgotten and her moment of fame will be over. He has a family to feed and simply can't afford it. He is keen to find a rich family to bring up Rubina but only if they are willing to help the whole family to get out of the slums.
"The Middle East family were moved to tears by the plight of the young orphans shown in the film and fell in love with Rubina.
"Just as Western stars like Madonna do, they want to adopt children from poor areas and give them a better life.
"This family wanted to take Rubina abroad. They agreed to come to Mumbai to discuss the adoption in May.
"But the approach has made Rafiq very greedy and he has said that he will consider the highest offer for his child. But they realise that the money will soon stop coming in and Rafiq is open to all offers."
Our investigator made contact with Rafiq and said we had heard he was considering having Rubina adopted. He told Rafiq he was acting for a wealthy Arab sheik who wanted to take the youngster to live with him 2,000 miles away in Dubai.
Rafiq replied: "Yes, we are considering Rubina's future.
After contacting us, Rubina's uncle Rajan More - who speaks good English - confirmed: "Yes, we are interested in securing our girl's future.
"Rubina's life is miserable and she lives here with her stepmother. Most of the time she stays with me because she is not happy at her parents' home.
"Obviously if you wanted to adopt we could discuss this, but her parents would also expect some proper compensation in return. We are talking of around £50,000 for this to happen." In another phone call, father Rafiq coolly confirmed: "Whatever you have discussed with Rajan, I agree with. Whatever money is agreed by Rajan, I will accept.
"We can discuss everything about this deal when we meet. There's a lot of interest in Rubina, she's become very famous."
Without querying the background, intentions, or even the names of Rubina's prospective new parents, Rafiq arranged to meet us.
And as soon as we said the wealthy family lived in the United Arab Emirates Rafiq suggested: "We would love to come there.
"I have never been there but I have seen it in Indian films. It looks a great place."
Trafficking of poor Indian children to the Middle East, where they are forced to risk their lives as camel jockeys or subjected to sexual abuse, is common in the Mumbai slums. But that did not deter Rafiq.
His first plan was to bring Rubina plus other relatives to visit us in Dubai to discuss the deal. But he had to scrap the idea because he could not get a passport. He is disqualified because he is facing police charges over a knife attack.
That is why he did not accompany Rubina to the Oscars ceremony and her Uncle Mohiuddin went instead.
Rafiq tried to shrug off the problem, claiming: "There is a case against me but it's nothing. I'm trying to get it sorted now. In India you can buy anything if you have money!"
His Plan B was the meeting in Mumbai fixed for Thursday evening. But he arrived late with his little daughter at the luxurious Leela Kempinski hotel at 11.35pm, when most children her age would be in bed.
Also tagging along were trusted sidekick Rajan More, Rafiq's brother Mohiuddin, a friend called Dinesh Dubey and two young nephews. "They were all keen to see what the hotel looks like inside," explained Rajan as he entered the £480-a-night suite.
Smiling broadly, Rubina, who was wearing a torn orange and white Indian dress, looked around the room in amazement. She was proudly clutching her new Nokia mobile phone, a gift from a well-wisher.
She said: "My house is as big as the toilet you have here. We live in Gharib Nagar (Poor Man's Colony)."
As the young VIP ordered strawberry milk shake and ice-cream, dad Rafiq proudly told how his daughter clinched the part in the international blockbuster film.
Toys
"One of our neighbours where we live took her to the audition," he said. "Around 1,500 kids turned up and my daughter passed. The film took over a year to make and she worked on it for a month."
As Rafiq spoke, Rubina excitedly looked around the suite, giggling and pointing out a large plasma TV on the wall to her 13-year-old cousin Mohsin.
Then she spoke about her new-found stardom. "I like being famous," she said. "Everyone where I live knows me and likes me now. Some people who I don't even know shout my name wherever I go - 'Rubina, Rubina'!"
She proudly told us how she had worked with the stars on Slumdog and with "Uncle Danny (Boyle)".
Full story :
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/271627/Slumdog-Millionaire-star-Rub...
A R Vanoo from Doha, Qatar, says he is willing to fund Rubina’s schooling in any part of the world, upto a master’s degree or even a doctorate, if she wishes to pursue her studies. With money clearly not an issue, the wellwisher is even open to her studying at an IB (International Baccalaureate) school, known to charge steep fees.
Blog: Why fret over ‘sale’ of ‘Slumdog’ kid?
Vanoo visited Rubina’s home on Tuesday morning, and met her father and relatives. He spent around an hour with them over a cup of coffee. He held a detailed discussion to understand the requirements of the family before committing himself. “I have not seen Slumdog Millionaire, but know it’s won several Oscars. Three days ago, when I watched television reports about Rubina’s father allegedly trying to sell her off, it disturbed me deeply. I have a young daughter, and I could not watch her suffer so much.”
Though Vanoo was born and brought up at Vakola in Santacruz, which isn’t far from Bandra’s Garib Nagar where Rubina lives, he said he had never visited the area before. It was about 25 years ago that Vanoo shifted to the Gulf in search of a job, before deciding to settle there. He runs a successful business in petrochemicals, oil and gas exports and visits Mumbai often on business trips.
Blog: Morality and Rubina’s world
With a father, who Vanoo says was a freedom fighter, he has been closely working with NGOs for several years. He is an advisor to Anjuman-Ittehad-Ul-Mushtaqeem, an NGO that that works to educate people in rural areas. It is through this NGO that Vanoo will give money for Rubina’s education.
“Vanoo is an MBA graduate and has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and contributes to several NGOs but never really interacts directly with the people he helps. He, however, made an exception with Rubina,” said Kamal Mandlekar, president of the NGO.
He added that Vanoo did not want to set aside a fixed amount for the girl. “He doesn’t want to limit himself. He’s decided to open a joint account in the name of Rubina and our NGO. The money will be used to pay for her education, uniforms and other schoolrelated requirements.”
Last week, there had been media reports about a sting operation carried out by a British newspaper, News of the World, which claimed Rubina’s father had tried to extract money from a sheikh who had sought to adopt her. Rubina’s father had denied the claims. But Mandlekar preferred to stay away from the controversy. “We do not want to get involved in the case. We only want to help a bright girl shape her future,” he said.
Source: TOI
VB: God bless him for such a Noble cause!!!
From what I read earlier, the TRUST is designed in such a way as to encourage further education. The more they achieve in their studies, the bigger the pot..
"Rubina Ali and Azhar Ismail, two 'real life' slum kids who played the 'younger' version of Slumdog Millionaire's central characters, have been gifted with new family homes by the Indian government.
A government official said, "These two children have brought laurels to the country, and we have been told that they live in slums, which cannot even be classified as housing."
On Tuesday, we mentioned that the movies' producers were setting up professionally managed trusts for the child actors so they wouldn't have to live a life of squalor any more."
"As we mentioned earlier, Rafiq Quereshi, the father of adorable 9-year-old Slumdog Millionaire star Rubina Ali, has reportedly attempted to sell his daughter in an illegal adoption deal!!! Apparently, he was close to getting $300,000 for her.
Thankfully, though, the douche of a dad got arrested and tried to blame it all on a "misunderstanding" after some Dubai sheikh offered to adopt the little girl.
Thank goodness, now, for the producers of Slumdog. The same execs that set up a trust and purchased homes for Rubina and her young co-star, Azhar Ismail, have now stepped in to help again.
After the news broke of Rubina's dad trying to sell give her up for adoption, the movie execs quickly got on the case and have now hired a social worker to look after her.
Producer Christian Colson released a statement Tuesday saying, "Both Danny [Boyle, the director] and I remain committed to working with the trust and the family to secure Rubina's long-term best interests."
A trustee for the child stars' trust released a their own statement adding that "the trust will support Rubina, her parents and responsible authorities to ensure that the rights and best interests of Rubina. The trust is in regular contact with Rubina Ali and her family and has hired a social worker to assist in looking after her welfare and that of her co-star."
http://perezhilton.com/?s=slumdog
Well I hope the outcome of this is more world attention to child trafficking.
There is one more element in this story, Rubina's biological mother. She made the complaints and police have arrested Rafiq. This woman is also as much greedy as Rafiq. She left home 7 yrs ago and when Rubina gained the international fame, her mother arouse from nowhere.
And I still find this sting opearation suspicious and made only to benefit the circualation of that tabloid. The man who has not seen probably 1000 rs in his life, was offered 200k (todays' paper says 400k)? For this money he could have sold his entire family, I guess.
The man is greedy, no doubt about it, but medias hands are also not clean, I suspect...I hope they would dig out the truth soon. Just can't imagine the hell the child is passing through...
Everything gonna be alright!!!
really difficult to explained him (12 years) why and how such things are happening in our town/home country! Alas!
Finally, NGO's and HRC are all active now in this case being slumdog/oscar, media sting related issues;
We really don't know how many more cases of child-abuse/human trafficking were going unnoticed.
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Her father is a greedy bugger...and some middlemen and media used him! Her uncle can speak
English...he was also there with them during the sting operation..
when she returned back from Oscar ceremony, that moron spanked her in front of the media...so I dont think its all made up story..
You're right..
From today's Indian Expres..
The father has been arrested ....
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/father-of-slumdog-star-rubina-ali-arrested/449467/
dis wrlds jus impossible how can sum1 sell his own daughter n first of all i dnt believ d media all wht dey do is try 2 get a story out of nothin
in UK press as well. The whole story published in yesterday's Gtimes.
If there is smoke, something must be burning around!
The news in the Indian media tells a different story.
It was actually a cheap sting operation and the sting operations always made to get the 'desired' results. Indian poverty has a big market around the world and the newspaper exactly trying its hands on it. May be their own jokers have failed to provide any drama to them.
Rubina's (little girl) father denied all the charges put against him. He said that he don't even understand english and there is no chance he will sell his own daughter. He said, if he anytime wanted to sell his daughter, he would have done it long back, Why would have he waited for this so called Arab Sheikh? Rubinas mother left her when she was only 2 yrs old and Rubinas father is now taking care of her and her two siblings. He said that his words are totally distorted to take out the meaning they want.
In this all sh*tty news, what I observe, they are actually distorting the image of Arabs rather than poor Indians, don't they? Arabs are shown here as child traffickers. Why didn't the newspaper brought an english couple to purchase Rubina, as they are doing it whole the world around? Now I think it is actually the govt. of Malawi shown sense by not allowing the Malawi kid to Madonna.
Whole scenario, I think it is not Rubina who is being sold, it is the newspaper who is trying to sell itself.
Everything gonna be alright!!!
education has nothing to do with this. not all illiterate or uneducated parents sell their kids to bring food to the table.it is lake of feelings and emotions of parenthood.just imagine the feelings of the poor girl, like a toy or any other thing for sale.
Greed has no limits...one can go to any extend..
~noms~
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"Before God we are all equally wise ' and equally foolish" - Albert Einstein
The father won't benefit from the trust fund - the girl will get it when she's older. If he's ready to sell her for profit, he doesn't deserve to be her father. Whoever is willing to pay that amount will most likely treat her well and is in my opinion more deserving than her real father.
UkEngQatar: its not only in India,,,its everywhere...the only difference is this issue was published..!!?!!
~noms~
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"Before God we are all equally wise ' and equally foolish" - Albert Einstein
The film did generate a lot of positive energy which was contrary to what those in India believed would happen.
I would really like to believe the father is only doing this as a publicity stunt to highlight the desperste circumstances they are facing in the here and now,but I dont think he has the intelectual sophistication for such a stunt .
Greed tends to be the Human Method.
Problem is though, ok the father gets thrown into prison, then all his kids go to foster parent (doubt they will be together) so that splits the family up even more, the chances are someone would only the adopt the kid so they could flaunt her publicly like a piece of jewelry.
There is absolutley no good that can come from one silly little mans actions.
As brit said... Education.
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True..
Its happening in many countries..
Education is an answer, but coupled with enforced legislation from the government.
Yes, sadly they did exist..
This so called parent is willing to "sell" his offspring just to ease his own lifestyle..
The Save The Children Fund has been highlighting issues similar to this, but its a massive problem to address.
why should i?i have my beaUtiful life.do you?
Austin Powers...would you prefer single moms then, who live on state benefit? Living in trailer parks and having children from different fathers. Incredible India indeed! But look how ordinary the west is...
maybe he dont have any rupees now to buy food to his extended family.no wonder thats why they called india"INCREDIBLE INDIA"
I wouldn't mind being adopted...whats wrong with that?
Although the film highlighted the hardships faced by many Indians, the film itself generated vast amounts of positive publicity for the country.
The problems seems to be that the success of the film has spawned a culture of greed and selfishness, which threatens to devalue all that was good.
, When they made the film certain authorities in India said that the movie created a negative picture.
Hmmm.
You're right! The father seems unfit to be parenting this child. Isn't selling children illegal in India? Maybe not.
Alexa, I agree that the government or somebody with scruples needs to step in.
This publicity cannot be good for India, at all.
You are right.. The negative publicity is not good for the industry..
As an aside.. Perhaps the social services need top move in and take the child into care whilst taking legal action against the father..
That would help deter other similar cases in the future.
crap sales man, he could of asked for twice that.
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.
.Father tries to sell girl for 200 K!
.
.This kind of people don't deserve to become a parent at all,
.He should have f-cked a dog:(
.that's all......
.
You were one second faster!
What this is doing is making movie executives think twice about hiring child actors from other parts of the world, especially impoverished areas!
What a nightmare!
According to this article, trust funds were set up for Rubina and the other child actors.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1165859/Slumdog-Millionaire-child-star-Rubina-earned-shooting-day-soft-drinks-ad-film.html?ITO=1490
Just last week, the executives were talking about the trust fund and adding to it.
I'm not sure if the father is credible when he says that Rubina has not received more money.
The father is a sad case.
Pure Greed!
the film company did set up a trust fund for the children and gave a lump sum to the parents.
It seems that the Father has realised the "potential" for te extra income and is going for it.
The saddest part is that he is willing to use his daughter as a comodity for the highest bidder. This shows that there is no real love for the child :(
that and sell their kids for drugs and to pay debts ... This one is far worse, trying to sell his daughter for his own profit. You want to save your family or change the way they live, find another way plz.
Just a question ... would he ever tried doing that if the kid did not act in the movie or won the Oscar? Guess not ... That is why he should find another way, be a father and not a stupid guy trying to do immoral business!
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. (Gautama Buddha)
I could not stop tears in my eyes; when thought of that pretty girl offered for sale.
Are we still following Slavery?
So shameful and inhuman act;
Where all the NGO's and women right protection cells? where are all the activist for Girl child rights?
Samya..Would you consider being adopted?...lol
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HE WHO DARES WINS
Incredible India!
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HE WHO DARES WINS
There is no end for greed...
Such an irresponsible stupid father...