A heartless scam has left an elderly, grieving lottery vendor in Tripunithura devastated after a smooth-talking fraudster swindled him of his hard-earned money and valuable stock. VD Pushpan, who struggles to make ends meet while battling severe health issues, fell victim to the trickster on August 23, near the local cricket ground.

A devastating blow to a struggling family
Pushpan, residing at Panakkal Lipin Nivas, relies entirely on selling lottery tickets to survive. Life has been an uphill battle for him and his wife, who have had no one to support them since their only son died in a tragic accident 11 years ago. Despite suffering from debilitating knee pain that makes movement difficult, Pushpan takes to the streets every day to earn a modest daily income of under ₹400. After setting aside ₹100 for his daily auto-rickshaw fare, the elderly couple survive on a meagre budget of just ₹300 a day.

How the scam unfolded
The incident occurred near the Tripunithura cricket ground when an unidentified man on a motorcycle approached Pushpan. Striking up a friendly conversation to win the elderly vendor's trust, the stranger produced a lottery ticket, claiming it had won a ₹5,000 prize. Trusting the man's warm demeanour, Pushpan accepted the ticket without realising that the draw date on it had been cleverly altered and forged. In exchange for the fake winning ticket, Pushpan handed over ₹2,150 in cash along with 33 fresh lottery tickets from his stock, including several highly priced bumper lottery tickets.

The cruel discovery and police investigation
The scale of the betrayal became clear only when Pushpan took the ticket to the lottery agency's head office to claim the cash. Staff there immediately identified it as a fake. Left shocked and penniless, Pushpan lodged a formal complaint with the Hill Palace police. Authorities have registered a case and initiated a manhunt, tracking the suspect's movements using local CCTV footage and the registration number of the motorcycle used in the crime. Locals and community members have expressed deep outrage, calling for swift police action against the conman who preyed on a vulnerable senior citizen.