The confusion over the winner of the first prize of the Kerala Thiruvonam Bumper Lottery, worth ₹12 crore, has come to an end with Jayapalan T.R. from Maradu, Kochi, submitting the winning ticket at the Maradu branch of a nationalised bank on Monday.
The development brought the curtains down on day-long speculations about the real winner of the lottery after Saithalavi, 45, an expatriate worker from Panamaram in Wayanad initially claimed to have won the lottery. He works as a help at a restaurant at Abu Hail in Dubai.
The draw was held around 3 p.m. in the State capital on Sunday and the winner of the first prize could not be identified immediately. It was reported that the first prize was won by a ticket bearing the number TE 645465 sold through a wholesale agency at Karunagappally in Kollam district.
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‘Will continue to work’
On Monday, sources at Meenakshi Lotteries, a retail agency at Statue Junction, Thripunithura, near Kochi, claimed that the winning lottery was sold from there. Mr. Jayapalan, an autorickshaw driver, told the media that he had bought the ticket from the Thripunithura agency and would use the prize money to meet his liabilities. He added that he had no plans to leave his work, something he has been doing for more than three decades.
Mr. Saithalvi had initially said that he had purchased the ticket with the help of a friend in Palakkad. Though the friend was to have brought the ticket to Saithalvi’s house in Wayanad, he was yet to arrive there.
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Winners get ₹54 crore
Around 54 lakh tickets, each priced ₹300, were sold across the State for the Thiruvonam bumper draw. A total of around ₹54 crore is paid to winners in different categories, including the six second prize winners who get ₹1 crore each.