After a British tabloid accused Rafiq Qureshi, the father of [movie id="364450"]"Slumdog Millionaire"[/movie] star Rubina Ali, of attempting to [article id="1609585"]sell his 9-year-old daughter into illegal adoption,[/article] he has been cleared of wrongdoing by Mumbai police, according to Reuters.

"So far there is no evidence of any offense, hence there is no registration of complaint and no arrest," Nisar Tamboli, a senior police officer, told the agency.

The story exploded earlier this week when British tabloid News of the World reported that Qureshi tried to sell his daughter to a wealthy family from Dubai for about $290,000. The family turned out to be undercover reporters engaging in a sting operation.

Based on the news report, Rubina's estranged mother, Khurshid Begum, filed a compliant against her former husband and police began an investigation.

Qureshi had [article id="1609654"]denied any involvement in illegal adoption.[/article] "I have told the police that they had called me and my family there to frame us wrongly, and they have presented this in a different way," he told reporters outside the Mumbai police station, where he and his daughter had been taken for questioning.

Many questions about the case still remain. It is not known if police were able to examine purported evidence obtained by News of the World, whose published report included lengthy quotes and photographs. The police official's statement -- "So far there is no evidence of any offense" -- seemed at least to leave open the possibility that the issue is not closed for good, and News of the World has not yet spoken out to defend or retract its story.