35-year-old man from Punjab wins whopping 10 million Dirhams jackpot in UAE Big Ticket draw

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A 35-year-old Indian man in the UAE has won a whopping jackpot of 10 million dirhams (19.90 crores) in a raffle in Abu Dhabi, the latest addition to the long list of lucky winners from India, a media report said on Friday. Gurpreet Singh, who originally hails from Punjab and works in Sharjah as an IT manager, purchased the lucky ticket number 067757 on August 12, the Khaleej Times reported.

On September 3 when Singh received a call from the organisers of the raffle draw informing him that he was among the winners, he felt it was a prank call.

"I was busy at work. I was surprised. You can imagine if someone calls in the afternoon and says You have won 10 million dirhams. And I don't follow the draw live but check the media reports on the winner. But I had a thought in the morning that it's September 3 and it's the draw date," the report quoted Singh as saying after he bagged the jackpot.

Singh has been participating in the Big Ticket raffle for more than two years but hardly follows the draw live on social media platforms. He wasn't aware of the change in timing of the raffle because of the pandemic.

He said he will buy a house in the UAE with the jackpot money and will try to bring his parents from Punjab so that they can stay with him and his family.

"I always thought if I had the money I would buy a house here. I will get back my ageing parents here. They are staying alone in Punjab. Every day while returning home from work, I always used to think when lady luck would smile on me. Now I can afford that dream," he said.

Singh urged everyone to keep trying their luck at the lucky draw.

"Sometimes I used to pool money with my friends or buy on my own. But this ticket was bought by me alone. People should keep trying and you'll get lucky. When you dream, dream big," he said and noted the celebratory party will be muted keeping in mind the risk of a second wave of the pandemic.