Christmas-New Year bumper lottery winner bought ticket just 5 hours ahead of draw

Kottayam: Luck, it seems, was waiting to shower its bounties on Sadanandan. He bought the Christmas-New Year bumper lottery ticket at 9.30 am and within just five-and-a half hours he won the Rs 12 crore first prize.

C N Sadanandan,72, of Aymanam on the Kottayam town bought the winning ticket XG 218582 from his friend and lottery agent Selvakumar, while he was returning home after purchasing meat. 

By 3 pm he came to know that he had won the first prize. “It's all because of the blessings of the Almighty. My children have debts which need to be cleared. I want to reconstruct the house,” said  Sadananadan, a painter by profession, sharing  his dreams.

Sadanandan would get Rs 7.39 crore after the deduction of income tax and the commission of the lottery agent.  

Lottery agent Selvakumar had bought 40 bumper lottery tickets from the Sree Krishna Lucky Center at Thirunakkara. The latter agency had procured the ticket from Benz agencies in Kottayam town.

Sadanandan is set to hand over the prize-winning ticket to the branch manager of the State Bank of India at Aymanam. 

O B Rajama is Sadanandan’s wife. Their children are Sanjay Sadan and Saneesh Sadan. 

The Kerala State Lottery Department had set a records of sorts by selling 47,36,528 tickets out of the 47,40,000 Christmas-New Year bumper tickets that were printed.

The ticket price for the Christmas bumper was Rs 300. This lottery also carries a second prize of Rs 3 crore (to be given to 6 tickets) and a third prize of Rs 60 lakh (to be given to 6 tickets).

The lottery department had printed 24 lakh tickets initially. After they were sold out, the tickets were printed again twice.

The result of the Kerala bumper lottery was released after the draw held at Thiruvananthapuram in the presence of state government officials.

The tickets were sold in XA, XB, XC, XD, XE and XG series.