Rubina with her father at the police station in Mumbai on Sunday. (Fotocorp)

Mumbai, April 19: Oscar child Rubina was about to be sold off for Rs 1.4 crore — by her father.

A British tabloid, which carried out a sting, published a report this morning saying Rubina Ali, who starred in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, was about to be given up for adoption to two undercover reporters posing as an Arab couple.

Her father Rafiq Qureshi, however, denied the story by News of the World, which posted photographs and a video clip showing Rafiq and Rubina with the reporters on its website.

“This is not true,” Rafiq said outside their shanty, Rubina’s real-life home in Bandra. “We never offered her for adoption. A father can never sell his daughter.”

Dressed in an orange frock, Rubina — who played the character of young Latika in the Danny Boyle film about a rags-to-riches journey — looked stunned but spoke up for her father. “My father is speaking the truth,” she said.

The morning also saw a brawl between Rubina’s biological mother Khurshid, who had divorced Rafiq when the girl was two years old, and her step-mom Munni after news of the alleged £200,000 offer spread.

Both women hit each other before a crowd that had gathered pulled them apart.

The tabloid said the reporters, who posed as residents of Dubai, told Rafiq they had been moved by TV reports about Rubina’s poverty. They said they wanted to adopt the 9-year-old and invited her and her family to a five-star hotel near Mumbai international airport.

The tabloid said its reporters offered £50,000, which Rafiq later raised to £200,000 (about Rs 1.4 crore).

When they objected to the huge amount, Rafiq’s brother Mohiuddin said: “The child is special now. This is not an ordinary child. This is an Oscar child!”

Rafiq said he had been “framed”. “We were not ready to go when they called us to the hotel. But Sheikh said his wife was crying and requested us to bring Rubina to the hotel to make her feel better. I sympathised with them and took the girl there. I don’t know they had placed (hidden) cameras. That voice on the video clip is not mine.”

Munni said the “lady telephoned us and said they wished to adopt” Rubina. “Rafiq told her ‘there was no question of giving our daughter for adoption, but if you wish to meet her, we would allow that’. I am a mother and can understand how a childless woman feels for children.”

Khurshid said Rafiq had “always been a greedy man”, and later filed a complaint with Nirmal Nagar police station. The police summoned Rafiq and his family and questioned them for several hours.

“We have received a complaint from Khurshid and are looking into the matter,” deputy commissioner Nisar Tamboli said. “We have not lodged an offence yet.”

In Delhi, Shanti Sinha, chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, said the rights body had taken cognisance of the tabloid report and would probe the allegations of sale.