Kerala man working as chef in Abu Dhabi wins Rs 1 crore lottery, 24 years after first win

PTI, Mar 5, 2022, 3:12 PM IST

Abu Dhabi: An Indian living in UAE won the Big Ticket draw for the second time. Saidali Kannan won the electronic weekly draw worth Dh 500,000 (R 1 crore).

Kannan who works as a private chef in Abu Dhabi has been buying lottery tickets for 24 years. This is the second time he won the lottery after bagging a cash prize back in 1998. Kannan had bought his ticket on February 22.

Kannan’s friend Abdul Majeed said told Khaleej Times, “I have been sharing tickets almost every month with Saidali for the last 20 years. I believe he’s very lucky. I have been doing this for a very long time. And it has finally paid off.”

This is not the first time an Indian expat has won a lottery in UAE.

Last year, a Kerala man working as a driver in UAE won 20 million dirhams (approximately Rs 40 crore) in a raffle draw. Ranjit Somaranjan and his nine other associates were declared the joint winners of the prize.

“We are a total of 10 people. Others are from different countries, like India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. They work in the valet parking of a hotel. We took the ticket under the ‘buy two and get one free’ offer. Each person pooled 100 dirhams. The ticket was taken in my name on June 29,” Somarajan said.

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