Dubai: A former Dubai resident, who left the country for good and his friend from Abu Dhabi, won Dh15 million in the Big Ticket Abu Dhabi raffle held on Saturday.
Both Vilas Rikkala and Ravi Masipeddi hail from the Nizamabad district in India’s Telangana state. They have been purchasing tickets for a long time and finally got lucky with ticket number 223805 bought on July 29.
Rikkala, who is back in India, is finding it difficult to come to terms with this unexpected windfall.
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“I don’t have words to describe it. This is like a dream. I worked in a Dubai firm for 4-5 years and then left. And now I have this jackpot. This will take some time to sink in,” Rikkala said over the phone.
“I can’t think of anything as my phone is inundated with phone calls,” he added.
Masipeddi, on the other hand, whose Abu Dhabi mobile number was given in ticket, is on cloud nine.
“I cannot remember how many years we are buying this,” a jubilant Masipeddi said. “Finally we have won. We have pooled 50 per cent of money into the ticket. It seems Vilas’ name is lucky. He had left recently. This is an unbelievable moment for all of us,” Masipeddi, who works in Abu Dhabi, said. “Now it’s a wait for Vilas to come back here to claim our prize.”
Meanwhile, there was an unexpected winner for Dh100,000. The second prize was won by Somali expat Afrah Suleiman Ahmed with ticket number 243404.
Overall, Indians dominated among the top 10 winners. There were five from India, two from Philippines, and one each from the Egypt and Somalia.
