Tamil Nadu natives who won Kerala's Rs 25 crore bumper lottery still await prize money

Four Tamil Nadu natives who won the Kerala government's Onam bumper lottery with a prize money of Rs. 25 crore will have to wait for some more time for a decision on getting the prize.

Apart from looking into the complaint that the ticket that won the bumper prize was sold out illegally in Tamil Nadu, the due process for awarding prize money to winners from other states also need to be carried out.

The draw of lots of the Onam bumper lottery was held on September 20 and four Tirupur natives have produced the bumper prize winning ticket. After agent's commission and taxes, the bumper prize winner will get Rs. 14 crore.

Kerala lottery department sources said that a committee of the department would scrutinise all documents submitted by prize winners from other states before awarding the prize money. The Tamil Nadu natives are yet to submit all required documents. 

Even as an individual gave a complaint alleging that the prize winning ticket was purchased by the Tamil Nadu natives from a black marketing racket, the complainant did not submit any proof in this regard, said sources.

"If Kerala lottery tickets are illegally sold through black marketing in other states, it is the duty of those state's to curb it. We could only verify whether the prize winning lottery was sold out through an authorised agent," said the official.

Since lottery tickets are banned in Tamil Nadu, Kerala's lottery shops on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu borders often witness brisk purchases by customers from Tamil Nadu. The four Tirupur natives who are possessing the bumper prize winning ticket claimed that they purchased the ticket while they came down to Kerala to visit a friend under treatment in Kerala. They were preferring anonymity.

Meanwhile, the lottery department has been carrying out a campaign against illegal sale of lottery tickets online. Rackets that sell the same lottery ticket to more persons in other states by sharing its image online were thriving for some time. There were even instances of people from other states coming to the lottery offices claiming prize money. Hence the department initiated a campaign urging people not to buy online tickets.