Indian doctor wins over Rs 17.5 crores in lottery in UAE’s Big Ticket Raffle

An Indian doctor’s life won the lottery in Abu Dhabi, taking home over Rs 17.5 crores in winnings.

Nishita Radhakrishna Pillai, from Kerala, won the Dirham 10 million (approximately Rs 17,68,00,000) lottery in the Big Ticket raffle.

After 50 numerous attempts at one of the most-anticipated raffle bonanzas in the UAE, the mother of two finally struck gold.

Pillai is the second person to bring home Dirham 10 million, the biggest amount granted to a draw participant since the inception of the raffle bonanza, Gulf News reported.

A paediatrician in the UAE, Pillai is currently in Houston doing a fellowship in genetics.

In the past six months, Pillai’s husband bought about 50 tickets under her name online, hoping to better odds.

“He would buy five tickets for every draw. My husband is such a big fan of the UAE. Well, we enjoyed our time working there and we do have plans to go back,” Pillai said.

Pillai and her husband have not decided what to do with the money yet.

“It’s such a big amount and besides we were awaken by the good news in the middle of the night and we can’t even think straight,” she said.

“It was my dad who shared the news with us since he’s the one who got the call from the organisers, and at first we thought it was a prank call. We had to check the Big Ticket website to confirm it,” Pillai said.

The millionaire promotion is the longest-running and the biggest raffle draw hosted at the Abu Dhabi International Airport.

So far, the Big Ticket raffle has declared 178 millionaires, with the first few winners taking home Dirham 1 million.

Last month, a 33-year-old Indian expatriate in Abu Dhabi won over Rs 12 crores.

Sreeraj Krishnan Kopparembil, also from Kerala, won a whopping Dirham 7 million (approximately Rs 12,71,70,000) in the Abu Dhabi Big Ticket Draw.

First Published: Apr 05, 2017 19:38 IST