Pritam Kumar Razak, a petty worker with the locomotive workshop in Jamalpur, Bihar, was a happy man, content with what he had in life—a secure job, a caring wife and two lovely children. He had no bad habits except, perhaps, one: he spent a lot of money on buying lottery tickets, hoping some day Lady Luck would smile on him and make him rich overnight.
Sure enough, the fateful day dawned on 6 December 1991. Ticket number SA-763447, which he had bought for the bumper draw of the All India Deaf and Dumb Society Lotteries, run under the aegis of the Andhra Pradesh (AP) government, was declared the winner of the first prize of Rs 51 lakh. Now, Rs 51 lakh at that time—or for that matter even now—was a lot of money. Pritam’s jubilation knew no bounds and he celebrated by distributing sweets amongst his friends and neighbours, who were more envious than happy for him. Both his wife and he began to plan how they would invest the money to secure their children’s future, after setting aside some money for themselves. They would perhaps take that elusive trip to Goa, a place they had heard so much about and dreamt of visiting some day. Little did they realize that one should never count one’s chickens before they hatch.
An excited Pritam went to meet the manager of the local branch of the State Bank of India, who processed his claim—as was the procedure prescribed to claim winnings in the said lottery—and sent the winning ticket along with other necessary documents to the society’s office in New Delhi. Interestingly, the society responded by sending two different acknowledgements of receipt: one to the bank and the other to Pritam. The communication he received said that the society had received all necessary documents except the winning ticket, whereas the bank was informed that all documents had been duly received.

A disturbed Pritam Kumar entered into a protracted correspondence with the society stating that his bank had sent them the winning ticket, but his protests were to no avail....

To be continued.....