₹20 Crore Christmas Bumper Lottery Ticket Lost; Retired ASI Steps Forward

Piravom: A retired Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) from Pazhoor in Piravom has come forward claiming ownership of the ₹20 crore Christmas–New Year Bumper lottery prize.

K.K. Sajimon, a retired ASI residing at Kottappurathu House in Pazhoor, approached the police and the court stating that the winning ticket was lost. The bumper draw was held on January 24, and ticket number XC 138455 won the prize.

After retiring from the police force, Sajimon has been running a traveller service. He stated that a group of Ayyappa devotees from Visakhapatnam, who had travelled to Sabarimala in his vehicle, had accidentally left behind a ghee container in the vehicle. Sajimon claims he had kept the lottery ticket he purchased underneath this ghee container.

Later, when the devotees requested the return of the container, he couriered it on January 30 from a courier service in Piravom. He alleges that the ticket was unintentionally sent along with the container. Realising this on February 1, Sajimon contacted the courier office and requested its return, but it was unsuccessful. The container was delivered to its owner in Visakhapatnam on February 4.

Sajimon says he had purchased the ticket from Kanjirappally on December 1 while visiting his wife’s relative in Mundakayam, and had written his address and signed on the back of the ticket.

Following his complaint, Piravom police conducted an inspection at the courier office. Sajimon also approached the Piravom First Class Magistrate Court seeking action to examine the CCTV footage. The police have since produced the CCTV hard disk before the court.

He has also moved the High Court seeking directions to the Lottery Department to verify the ticket and investigate possible fraud. Meanwhile, there are indications that the winner has already presented the ticket at the Lottery Directorate office in Thiruvananthapuram.