Scrap trader wins Rs 17.29 cr jackpot

More lottery tickets will be sold on Tuesday than usual. On Monday, Jaiprakash Jaiswal won the country's highest-ever lottery prize. The amount: Rs 17.29 crore.

A trader dealing in iron scrap in Kolkata's Beliaghata area, Jaiswal turned up before the agent of Sikkim Super Lotto at Hidaram Banerjee Lane in College Street to claim the jackpot. The results had been announced last Thursday.

Super Lotto's representatives said they knew someone had won the jackpot as the ticket had been sold by the agent, but for the first few days no one turned up to claim the prize.

Jaiswal, who once ran a grocery shop, had bought four tickets (including the one which won) last week.

He has been buying lottery tickets since childhood. "I had even won twice," he says. "Once I won Rs 50 and another time, Rs 500."

This time he will get around Rs 11 crore after tax deduction. As for spending the crores he has won, he will take a decision only after he gets them. "They have told us that I will get the money in a couple of months," he says.

Till now, the highest prize money won in a lottery in India had been Rs 11.86 crore, in 2004. Another happy man on Monday was Suresh Dey, the agent who sold Jaiswal the winning ticket. He will be getting one per cent of the prize money as commission.