Father of Slumdog star Rubina Ali arrested

[JI7]

Source: indian express

Rafiq Qureshi, the father of Slumdog Millionaire starlet Rubina Ali, has been arrested over claims that he tried to sell his daughter for 200,000 pounds.

A complaint from the 36-year-old man’s ex-wife initiated the arrest.

Indian cops spent several hours quizzing Qureshi and are now on a prowl to obtain video recordings of the meeting at which the deal was supposedly brokered, reports ‘The Sun’.

Rubina's mother Khurshida claimed she knew two weeks ago of the intended child-trade with a rich Dubai sheikh.

Khurshida dubbed her ex-hubby and his new wife Mina as "money-crazy" and desperate to cash-in on the nine-year-old's fame.



Read more: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/father-of-slumdog-star-rubina-ali-arrested/449467/

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the father was probably looking to sell off the girl for marriage , not for adoption. she is lucky this got attention because of the movie.

[LynneSin]

1. You said she is lucky this got attention because of the movie but...

would he have been able to secure such a high payment if it wasn't for the movie.

Seems the movie has a double-edged sword for that poor girl

[JI7]

2. girls are sold off all the time, from what i read he was planning to sell her off

and then figured out he could probably get a lot more for her because of the movie.

without the movie she may have ended up being sold off for less like many other girls.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[RandomThoughts]

3. He may have done the same thing

just for less money, even if she was not famous.

Really glad someone stepped in and protected that beautiful little girl.

Thank God for that for sure.

[LynneSin]

6. That's very true

:cry:

[get the red out]

5. Sold off for marriage at 9 years old

I don't care what anyone here thinks about the death penalty, people should be shot for that, even a prison in India is too good for this bastard and all like him. This kind of thing needs to be stopped in this world. Damn fucking patriarchal men, worse than worthless, nothing has harmed humanity and this planet like patriarchal males. If they can believe in selling children I will keep on believing in them getting exactly what they deserve.

Of course if this were Afghanistan, Pakistan, (fill in the blank extremist Muslim country) instead of India the little girl would already be being legally raped by some old monster and her father laughing all the way to the market. Thank God India has actual laws. I respect India that this turd was arrested.

[HopeHoops]

7. It sounds to me like he was framed. There are other stories on this.

The one in today's paper (print, don't have an on-line link I could find) says he was invited to an upscale hotel for an interview by the reporter. They asked him a lot of leading questions like "how much would you accept to sell her?" and such.

Another point it made was that the mother had left a few years ago and only resurfaced after the movie had made the kids famous. I think it is entirely plausible that he was framed by her and the so called journalists. Keep in mind that all of this stems from one account by a UK tabloid (and you know how reliable THOSE are). It was NOT a police investigation that brought this on!

It is easy to assume he was just looking for money and I personally think the entire cast got screwed by the movie company, but the circumstances just stink of a set-up.

[pnwmom]

8. He kicked the 13 year old daughter out of his house, who then told

the mother what he was up to -- apparently he had been approaching other possible buyers on his own (which, unfortunately, is not that unusual in India.)

If he was "framed," he helped build the framing. He and his brother are on tape asking for the price to be raised to 4 times as high as it started.

I don't think the girl was "screwed" by the movie company when they put the bulk of the money into trust for her so the father couldn't spend it all before she reached adulthood.

[HopeHoops]

9. I've seen all of those claims as well.

I'm just saying there is another side to this. The tabloid story that created the story is about him meeting with a sheik - how many of those are wandering around slums in India? It is easy to rush to a conclusion on these things.

[pnwmom]

11. It is not unusual for sheiks or other wealthy businessmen to buy children

in India, and it is called an adoption -- while usually the children are taken as slaves.

And this "sheik" was staying in an upscale hotel where the father and daughter repeatedly visited him -- not "wandering around slums."

[No Elephants]

10. It was a sting operation, like many our government uses. That is not

"framing." When you frame someone, you make an innocent person appear guilty. This guy was not innocent. No matter how many people offered me money for my son, I would not have agreed at any price.

Entrapment is an issue that is always raised in sting operations. But I don't think even that is valid in this case since he was looking for buyers.

[harun]

12. Father cleared of charges

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30345517/

[AnneD]

13. Call me jaded....

but nothing about this story surprises me. From the Hollywood folks trying to do right by the kids by setting up a trust, to the purported parent greed to selling the child in marriage, slavery, or what ever, India's embarrassment and cover up to new found pride at the film.

Life is cheap in India. That's the long and short of it. If you are suffering in this life you either did something in the past and/or it will be better in the future. India is suppose to be this place of 'spiritual enlightenment'. I will have to say-I was spiritually enlightened when I went to India but not the way one would think. I call it like I see it. Not everyone treats their children like chattel-but enough do so it is worrisome. The caste system is nothing more than an effort for folks that have a little power to retain it and people are kept in grinding poverty.

One wealthy person I visited was inordinately proud of his wealth and 'status'. Instead of trying to improve things, or help with efforts to improve things-he spent time bragging about his wealth. Finally and as nicely as I could-I reminded him that all thought his trappings were nice-he still had to walk out in the streets fill with human waste and garbage. While I may not have the material wealth-when I stepped outside my humble house, I walked in clean streets, drank good water, etc. What is the point of being king of the hill if the hill is a dung heap. I'd rather be a poor person in America than a rich person in India ANY DAY OF THE WEEK.

[smitra]

14. While what you say is not untrue, you only present a one-sided view...

Like many Westerners who have visited India, you have seen the negative side(s) of life there and present your summary judgments.

There is no doubt that a rich person like the one you describe exists, and he lives like you describe. At the same time, did you ever wonder why the Tata family, one of the oldest and richest industrial houses in India, does not appear on the Forbes billionaires list, when many of the newer ones (and with business empires not so extensive) do? That is because most of Tata's wealth is tied up in charitable trusts. These, and many others sponsored by wealthy and not-so-wealthy people have done much where the government has failed to live up to its responsibilities. Example: when I graduated from high school in India, with very good grades, nearly 30 years ago now, a local restaurant owner (who could only be classified as 'moderately' rich) gave us a cash award that would pay for college costs (very moderate at that time). During the presentation ceremony, he said that he hoped that when we were successful we would remember his gift to and provide such gifts to other deserving kids -- so they could attend college.

Comparing the state of the streets in USA, a country with perhaps twenty times the per capita income, to the streets of India is not a fair comparison at all. Some of the streets in New York City, and the homeless people one sees there, should cause the people in this country to think... can the rich in this - the richest country in the world by far - not provide for them?