On the day of Lakshmi Puja, a wage labourer assigned to buy fertilizer in a village in Burdwan became a crorepati by sheer luck after a daily lottery ticket that he bought by chance matched the first prize.
Bamcharon Mete, a labourer from Dangapara in the Ausgram Police Station area, had gone to the local market to buy fertilizer for a small piece of land he had cultivated.
To his dismay, the fertilizer shop was closed due to Lakshmi Puja. Mete recounted, “I was frustrated as the shop was closed. On a whim, I bought two daily lottery tickets with the money my wife had given me from her personal savings. I spent ₹60 from the ₹100 note she had given me for fertilizer.”
When Mete returned home, his wife Kadam rebuked him for “wasting” the money. While having lunch, he casually checked the daily lottery website and was stunned to see the number on his ticket matched the first prize winner.
“At first, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on my cellphone screen,” Mete said. “I checked it multiple times before telling my wife, who also thought I was joking.”
Fearing that someone might steal the winning ticket, Mete called his nephew, and together they hurried to seek safety at the Ausgram Police Outpost.
The police confirmed that both Mete and nephew along with the prized ticket were provided shelter at the outpost for security reasons.