"So far there is no evidence of any offence, hence there is no registration of complaint and no arrest," a senior police officer in India told Reuters. The mother of 9-year-old Rubina Ali had called for an investigation after a sting operation by the British tabloid News of the World alleged that her father had tried to sell her for about 200,000 British pounds.
During their investigation, police questioned Rubina's father, Rafiq Qureshi, as well as other slum dwellers living in the suburbs of India's financial hub of Mumbai. Rubina, who portrayed the youngest version of the film's heroine, Latika, lives with her father and stepmother in the slum.
Qureshi had denied he accepted a proposal by News of the World correspondents who reportedly called him posing as agents acting on behalf of a wealthy family in Dubai. "They tricked us into this fakery but we came out unscathed," Rubina's father said.
"They played dirty with us, but we didn't accept any money from them. My daughter is not for sale," Qureshi added.
'Slumdog Millionaire' -- a rags-to-riches romance about a slum boy who competed on a TV game show -- won eight Academy Awards earlier this year.
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