Pookunju, a 40-year-old fisherman from Mynagapally’s Palamoottil, won a lottery of 70 lakh a few hours after getting a loan recovery notice from the bank.

Pookunju has supported his family by selling fish in his two-wheeler vehicle, but their financial condition has always been bad. A few years ago, the fisherman took a loan of around 9 lakh from the bank to build his house and has been struggling to pay back the amount.

On Wednesday, he bought a lottery ticket for the Kerala Akshaya lottery AK 570 from a local lottery vendor Gopala Pillai while returning home from work in the hope that he might get lucky with the lottery and pay the loan amount.

The fisherman’s father, Yusuf Kunju, frequently bought lottery tickets, but Pookunju rarely buys them. One day, he returned home to find a bank notice for the loan repayment as he had been struggling to make his payments for some time and had an outstanding debt of 12 lakh.

The man was troubled by the thought of his house being confiscated, but a few hours later, around 3:30 PM, he received a surprise call stating that he won the top prize of 70 lakh in the Akshaya AK 570 lottery.

A similar incident happened in July where a man named Mohammed Bava had to put his house, which was built only 8 months ago, up for sale for only 40 lakh after he couldn’t pay back his debt of 45 lakh. A potential buyer was ready to pay the amount, but a few hours before the transaction, he was informed that he won a lottery of 1 crore in the Fifty-Fifty lottery run by the Kerala government.

The man was ready to move into a rented apartment with his family after selling his dream house but was then saved by the lottery.