Lottery agent in Kerala wins Rs 1 crore after unsold ticket gets first prize: Report

In the same draw, six others who bought tickets from him won a prize of Rs 5,000 each. (Representational image: Pixabay)

A lottery agent from Kerala won Rs 1 crore after an unsold ticket in his possession was declared the winning number by the state government's Fifty Fifty lottery. NK Gangadharan of Kozhikode discovered that he had the winning ticket but decided against revealing it until he handed it over to the bank as he was afraid that it would be stolen or robbed from him, Manorama reported.

Gangadharan, who had worked as a bus conductor for 33 years before opening the lottery shop four years ago, told the publication that this is the first time that the store won a prize. Interestingly, in the same draw, six others who bought tickets from him won a prize of Rs 5,000 each.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, another Indian became a "crorepati" overnight after winning the 20 million dirham (about Rs 44 crore) grand prize in Abu Dhabi’s Big Ticket draw. But when the show hosts called Arun Kumar Vatakke Koroth of Bengaluru to share the good news, he thought it was a scam call so he disconnected the call and blocked the number.

“After receiving the call from Big Ticket, I assumed it was fake, a prank, probably. I disconnected the line and blocked that number. After a while, I received a call from a different number,” Kumar told Khaleej Times after lottery officials were finally able to get in touch with him.

“I bought this ticket through the ‘buy two get one free’ option. The ticket I won was the third one,” said the Bengaluru resident. “I could not believe that I had won the first prize. I am still in disbelief,” he added.