GaneshKottayam: Days after Kerala State Lotteries Department announced the results of the Onam Bumper 2016, we have finally found the lucky person who won the first prize of Rs 8 crore.
Manorama News on Sunday reported that Palakkad native Ganesh, an automobile workshop employee, is the winner. Ganesh's relatives claimed that he won the bumper prize.
Ganesh has been working at Lona two-wheeler workshop at Cherpu in Thrissur for 10 years. He bought the Onam bumper lottery from a vendor, near the famous Ayyappa temple at Kuthiran while on his way to his home in Nenmara for vacation. He left the ticket at home and went back to work.
Ganesh could not check the lottery results as he was continuously working for two weeks. Ganesh found out that he was the winner when he checked the ticket Saturday evening at his home.
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He handed over the winning ticket to State Bank of Travancore branch in Nenmara, on Monday.
The entire Kerala has been waiting out of sheer curiosity for the winner to turn up and claim the jackpot.
As the winning lottery (No. TC 788368) was sold in Thrissur, the Lottery Department's office in Thrissur has been receiving hundreds of calls daily from different parts of the state to ask about the jackpot winner.
The ticket in question was sold by the Johnson and Johnson ticket agency at Sakthan Nagar in Thrissur town.
There has been all-round speculation and rumors after the lucky winner failed to claim the prize. One spreading rumor say the winner was a lorry driver hailing from Salem, while the other suggested that the prize winning ticket was accidentally burned along with trash by the buyer’s family.
As the agent had bought about 200 tickets along with other tickets on wholesale, he does not remember the person who purchased TC 788368.
If nobody claims the prize money, it will automatically go to the state government.
As per rules, the prize winning ticket can be surrendered to a branch of any nationalized, scheduled or state/ district co-operative banks, located in India or abroad. A claim application along with a photostat copy of both sides of the ticket, two passport size photographs of the prize-winner duly attested by a gazetted officer/notary, self-attested copy of the PAN card, and the identity card, should also be submitted to the bank or the Lottery Directorate within two months of declaration of results.
After a thorough scrutiny of the documents, the amount will be transferred to the winner's bank account. A receipt for the prize money in the prescribed form should be signed by the winner, the rule stipulates.
