Indian expat Naheel Nizamudeen, the winner of Dh10 million in the Big Ticket Abu Dhabi, has finally been traced this morning.

The Keralite, who couldn’t be reached since yesterday, evening lives in Qatar. Naheel is part of a 40-member group, all of whom work together at a hypermarket of Qatar-based Al Suwayed Group. The group bought the ticket together.

Naheel and his roommate Shinoy Othayoth Kizhakk can’t believe their luck.

“We usually get a lot of spam calls. I still can’t believe that we have won,” said Naheel, who was on night shift when the draw was held.

Shinoy pointed out that it was the first time that 40 people bought the ticket.

“Usually, there are 10 to 15 people who purchase the ticket. Since we were not winning for the past couple of years, we expanded our group to 40. We are nearly 37 to 38 Indians, all from Kerala, and we have 2 to 3 people from Bangladesh. You never know who gets lucky,” Shinoy said over the phone.

The winning ticket number 278109 was bought in Naheel’s name. But the contact number given was his Indian one, which was inactive on his Qatar mobile. As a result, incoming calls were blocked.

Another number was of his father, who was reached only today and gave the organisers Naheel’s Qatar contact.

“We had watched the show live. We realised we had won. We were waiting for an official call as we have been receiving a lot of fake calls in the past. Today we got a call and an email from Big Ticket. Our lives are changed,” said Shinoy, who has previously worked in the UAE.

All the members work in different departments of the hypermarket — accounts, purchase, sales and manager — and all are facing financial crises.

“We are all from middle-class families and have financial issues. So, the future of 40 families have been secured with this jackpot. Our core members are Rasak Alungal, Alikutty, Subash Somasekaran, Abdul Kadher,” Shinoy said.

This is the second time this year that a group from Qatar is winning the lottery. In August, a 20-member group of Indian expatriates from Qatar had won Dh15 million.

Ashwani Kumar

I am a newspaperman from the emirate of Abu Dhabi. A journalist at heart. I get my stories from the streets. A south Indian born in the Hindi heartland, I easily connect with people from different nationalities and cultures. I am calm like a monk, sensitive and very patient reporter. On the ground, I cover a range of topics related to community, health, embassy, tourism, transport, business and sports. I will go out on a leg to do what’s right and stand by what I believe in.