Thiruvananthapuram: The Rs 12-crore first prize of the Kerala state lottery's Xmas-New Year Bumper was won by an yet-to-be identified person who bought the ticket from around Aryankavu, a region near Tamil Nadu border, in Kollam district.
The top-prize winning ticket, bearing the number XG 358753, was sold at the Bharani Lucky Agency at Aryankavu However, it is not known who the lucky winner is.
After deducting the agent's commission and the tax, the first-prize winner will get about Rs 7.56 crore.
Tenkasi native M Venkitesh, a sub-agent at Aryankavu, had bought 1800 tickets over three times from Mohammed Yasin, the owner of Parassala NMK Agency in Thiruvananthapuram. Sabarimala pilgrims were among those who had bought the ticket from here.
The Rs 2-crore prize for the Summer-Bumper lottery draw held in 2010 was also won by a ticket sold by Venkitesh.
Draw of lots
Arya Rajendran, the Mayor of the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation, drew the lot at the Gorky Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. Six tickets each of the second prize (Rs 50 lakh) and third prize (Rs 10 lakh) were also drawn.
The upcoming Summer-Bumper ticket, with a first prize of Rs 6 crore, was also released during the function.
Rs 77.35 crore for government
A total of 33 lakh tickets were printed for the Christmas-New Year Bumper lottery. While 32,99,982 tickets were sold, 12 tickets were found to be damaged. The government will fetch Rs 77.35 crore through the lottery sales and 28 per cent as Goods and Service Tax.