Kerala lottery winner becomes lottery seller

The winner of Kerala government’s Onam bumper lottery prize (of Rs 25 crore) has ventured into lottery sales.

30-year-old Anoop, a native of Thiruvananthapuram, had won last year’s Onam bumper lottery. Sadly, he had to stay away from his house for several weeks as people thronged to his residence seeking help. But now he has shifted to another part of the city and decided to move to selling lottery tickets.

Anoop told DH that he moved to this business as it was a lottery ticket that brought good fortune upon him. “Though I resumed my earlier profession as an autorickshaw driver, many people were not paying the fares saying I did not need the money. Hence my brother is now running the autorickshaw and I decided to start a lottery shop,” he said.

From Rs 15.5 crore received after deduction of taxes, Anoop again had to pay around Rs 3 crore as income tax.

Invested in FD

He had invested some amount in real estate and kept the balance as fixed deposits.

Days after winning the bumper lottery in last September, Anoop had shared his plight on social media that he was not even able to visit his family as he had to stay away from his house due to help-seekers.

“Though I later shifted with family to another place, help-seekers located the place and started coming there also,” he said.

Meanwhile, identity of the winner of the Christmas - New Year bumper lottery with prize money of Rs 16 crore was yet to be known to public several days after the results were announced.

Prize winners now prefer anonymity after coming across the plight of those like Anoop.

With many lottery winners finding it difficult to manage the huge prize money, state lottery department decided to launch a training session on money management for winners.