MUSCAT: Abdussalam N.V, a 28-year-old Indian expat living in Oman has won the Dh20 million (OMR 2 million) Big Ticket in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Abdussalam who runs business in Muscat for the last six years won the big ticket contest on January 3 but with a twist. According to UAE-based newspaper Khaleej Times, Abdussalam mistakenly used the Indian telephone code +91 for his Oman mobile number instead of +968 because of which the organisers of Big Ticket could not track the winner. “After a chase that lasted hours, the winner of the Dh20-million Big Ticket Abu Dhabi draw was finally found. Abdussalam N.V., a 28-year-old expat from the south Indian state of Kerala, is actually living in Oman’s capital of Muscat, where he runs a shopping centre,” Khaleej Times report said. Abdussalam hails from Kozhikode district of Kerala.

Abdussalam who is a regular participant of Big Ticket won the prize money after his fifth attempt, he told Khaleej Times.