Lottery seller Smija hands over winning ticket to TN woman

Aluva: Lottery seller Smija who runs a lottery ticket stall in front of Rajagiri Hospital in Ernakulam’s Aluva made headlines in 2021 for handing over Rs 6 crore worth first prize of Kerala Summer Bumper ticket to a person who had entrusted his ticket with her and promised to pay her later. On knowing about this Padma Subbarao, a native of Tamil Nadu, who is a regular visitor to Kerala sought out Smija’s contact number and called up the latter to appreciate her.

Since then Padma used to regularly purchase lottery tickets from Smija. She would pay the money online and Smija would set aside the tickets. Smija has handed over small prizes won for tickets taken by Padma so far.

Interestingly, this year Padma won Rs 25 lakh second prize of the Summer Bumper ticket which she had entrusted with Smija over the promise that the former will pay later. Being an honest person, this time too Smija called up and informed the good news to Padma. Soon, Padma flew down to Kochi on Monday. She met Smija in person at a private bank in Aluva, where the latter handed over the winning ticket.

Padma who hails from Andhra Pradesh is settled in Chennai. She is a retired assistant bank manager of a private bank in Chennai.  She used to visit Kerala for pilgrimage.

Padma has been living on her own. She came to know about her luck while she was at her sister’s house in Hyderabad as part of treatment there.

Meanwhile, Smija once again is on limelight and gets lauded for her act.