Kasaragod: Raghu Kannan, a debt-ridden pharmacist from Kanhangad, got lucky twice this week. First, he won Rs 1 lakh from the Kerala government's Win-Win lottery. Second, after tossing the ticket into a bin at a lottery stall, thinking it was worthless, the stall owner and his staff sifted through two sacks of discarded tickets two days later to find it — and then used CCTV footage to track down the winner. "They could have pocketed the money. But they didn't. I should give something to the boys," said the thankful pharmacist.

Raghu, a resident of Ramaguru Nagar in Bekal, said he buys lottery tickets every Sunday, his weekly day off. "But I only buy tickets if they end in 45 or 12 — those are my lucky numbers," he said.

As usual, he bought two tickets from Krishnan Poyyakkara, a lottery seller who makes a living selling tickets on foot. One ticket ended in 45, the other in 12.

On Monday, February 24, during the 810th draw of the Win-Win lottery, his ticket — WF 438045 — was among the 12 that won the third prize of Rs 1 lakh. But he had forgotten about the draw. In the evening, when he reached Kanhangad town, he stepped into Sam Sam Lottery House in the Old Bus Stand Building to check his numbers.

He tried to match his ticket numbers with the winning numbers displayed at the stall. He could not find his numbers. Disappointed, Raghu threw his lottery ticket in the waste bin and left. "I only checked the section for prizes of Rs 5,000 and below," he said. Moreover, in the third prize list of 12 numbers, Kasaragod was missing. The district mentioned beside his number was Kannur, so he overlooked it.

On Maha Shivaratri, February 26, Krishnan Poyyakkara, a sub-agent of Bhagavathi Lottery Stall in Kannur, visited Raghu’s pharmacy in Poochakkad, on the outskirts of Kanhangad. "He congratulated me and asked if I had redeemed my ticket," Raghu recalled.

Stunned, he asked, "What ticket?" But Krishnan was certain — he had only one ticket ending in 45, and he had sold it to Raghu. It was a winner.

He rushed to Sam Sam Lottery Stall, desperate to retrieve his discarded ticket. When he explained the story, stall owner T V Vinod pointed to two massive sacks of discarded lottery tickets that had not won any prizes. "He was lucky we still had them," said Vinod.

Krishnan hunkered down in the busy corridor and rifled through the sacks. "After nearly an hour, my back started aching, and I decided to give up. But Vinod told me to take the sacks home and check patiently," he said.

Raghu, however, wasn’t hopeful. On Monday, he had visited a couple of other lottery stalls and figured he might have tossed the ticket elsewhere. "I left the stall saying I will return later," the dejected pharmacist said.

Raghu was struggling, borrowing money and even selling his wife's mangalsutra to fund her treatment. He had hoped the lottery winnings would at least cover the interest on his debts.

After Raghu left the stall, Vinod asked his young staffers — Nanduraj, Sudhin, Shankar, and Mithun Ramesh — to go through the sacks carefully, checking each ticket one by one.

Within an hour, they found Raghu's ticket—WF 438045. "The boys were elated. But that’s when we realised we hadn’t asked for his name or phone number," said Vinod.

He immediately checked the CCTV footage and took a screengrab of Raghu inside the shop. By then, the lost-and-found lottery ticket became a talking point, drawing a crowd to Sam Sam. "I showed people the image, asking if anyone recognised him. One person in the crowd said he had seen him at a pharmacy somewhere," said Vinod.

With that lead, Vinod went to Neethi Medicals, a cooperative-run pharmacy in Kanhangad, knowing it had many employees. And it worked. One of them recognised the man in the screengrab as Raghu, an employee at Plus Medical Shop in Poochakkad, 8km from Kanhangad town. Vinod, who had lost his father five days earlier, got his number and made the Rs 1 lakh call to Raghu.