Windfall for 6 friends as they jointly win Rs 12 cr lottery

Dame luck smiled on six friends working at a jewellery outlet in Kollam district on Thursday as they hit the jackpot, jointly winning the first prize of Rs 12 crore in the Onam bumper lottery.

The winners had pooled in to purchase two tickets of Rs 300 each from a lottery vendor in front of their shop, of which one turned out to be the winning ticket.

This is the highest prize money offered by the state lotteries department.

As the results were announced on Thursday, the six --Ronni, Vivek, Rajiv, Subin Thomas, Rimjin and Ratheesh could not believe that they had won the first prize.

"We will continue working here. We have not yet decided what to do with the windfall", they said.

After the mandatory deductions of 10 per cent agency commission, income tax and surcharges, the winners would get around Rs 7 crore.

The second prize of Rs 50 lakh each was won by 10 tickets and the third prize of Rs 10 lakh each by 20 tickets.

About 46 lakh tickets were printed and distributed to vendors this time during onam, Kerala's harvest festival.

The state government organises 4 festival bumper lottery sales-- Onam, Vishu, Christmas and Dusserah.