The Dubai resident of 37 years buys a ticket every time he flies home
Dubai: A 62-year-old Indian, Mohammad Basheer Abdul Khadar, from Kerala, who was on board the Emirates plane that crash-landed and burst into flames here, could well be the luckiest man alive. He has won a million dollars in lottery, just six days after surviving the accident.
The Dubai expatriate struck gold yesterday when his lucky ticket number 0845 was drawn in the Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire at Dubai International Airport, winning him $1 million (Dirham 3.67 million). Khadar had purchased the ticket on Eid on his way for a vacation with his family in Thiruvananthapuram.
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A fleet administrator with a car dealer in Dubai, Khadar made it a habit to purchase a raffle ticket whenever he travelled to his home country.
Khadar became a millionaire after purchasing his 17th ticket, just four months before he was due to retire. “I have been working in Dubai for 37 years. God gave me a second life when I survived the plane crash, and blessed me with this money to follow all this up by doing good things,” Khadar said. A grandfather, Khadar earns Dirham 8,000 a month.