A man who lives in Bengaluru bought a lottery ticket online from Abu Dhabi's Big Ticket and won over Rs 44 crore.
Arun Kumar Vatakke Koroth won the grand prize of Dh20 million (Rs 44,75,67,571) with his ticket number 261031, bought on March 22, and became a new millionaire. It was his second attempt.
According to a report in Gulf News, when the show's host called to inform him of the big win, he thought it was a prank call and hung up immediately, and blocked the phone 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," he told Khaleej Times.
He added that he is in disbelief. "I could not believe that I had won the first prize. I am still in disbelief. I bought this ticket through the ‘buy two get one free' option. The ticket I won was the third one."
He is currently admitted for knee surgery in a hospital and plans to use the money to build a business. "I have a dream. I will try to achieve the same."
Surprisingly, the second and third prizes were also won by Indian-origin people. Suresh Mathan, who lives in Bahrain, won the second prize of Dh100,000 (Rs 2,237,837). And third prize of Dh90,000 was won by an Oman-based Indian national, Muhammed Shefeek.