Of course he did it!

Indian police announced today that they’ve found no evidence the father of 9-year-old Rubina Ali — who starred in Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire — put his daughter up for sale, reported US Magazine

Police opened an investigation following a complaint by Khurshid Begum, Ali’s estranged mother (please – she wanted in on it), after UK’s News of the World reported the father wanted to sell her to a Middle-Eastern sheik for up to $400,000.

"We have interrogated Rubina’s father at length and have not found any evidence against him indicating that he was trying to sell Rubina," senior police officer Nishar Tamboli told the Associated Press.

Did you roll the video tape?

Why would the police care? They were probably in on it as well. Now we know why India has one of the highest child trafficking problems in the world. Click to read India’s child trafficking statistics www.savethechildren.in

Though there is an ‘Immoral Traffic Prevention Act’ that exists in India, it only refers to trafficking for prostitution and so does not provide comprehensive protection for children. Nor does the Act provide a clear definition of ‘trafficking’.

Children are trafficked for several reasons including sexual exploitation; adoption; entertainment & sports (for example, acrobatics in circus, dance troupes, beer bars; as camel jockeys); marriage; labour; begging, organ trade (though only anecdotal evidence of this is available); drug peddling and smuggling. Trafficking of children usually HAPPENS THROUGH WELL ORGANIZED NETWORKS. FAMILY, RELATIVES, friends, community leaders, brokers, the pimps and owners of brothels, the POLICE, political connections and the criminal nexus: all or any of these have been found to be involved in the process of child trafficking.

If interested, you should also rent the movie, "Born into Brothels", about children born to prostitutes in Calcutta, India. It won an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2004.