Ramees Rahman, a native of Kerala’s Kannur district and a resident of Dubai, has been participating in the Dubai Duty Free promotions for the last one year – unsuccessfully. However, in January this year, Ramees bought another lucky draw ticket online – and this time, he bought the ticket in the name of his 11-month-old baby, Mohamed Salah. On Tuesday, at the draw for Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire, the guest drew out ticket number 1319. Mohamed Salah was declared the winner. He has won $1,000,000 (over Rs 7 crore). Incidentally, Mohamed Salah turns one on February 13.
“This is great news. I am extremely delighted. My son’s future is now well secured,” said Ramees, who has been living in the United Arab Emirates for the last six years.
Ramees, a 31-year-old who has been working as a senior accountant in Abu Dubai, told TNM that he has purchased three tickets so far, but with no luck. “I bought the fourth one in my son’s name, but without any particular reason,” he added. The family is yet to decide what to do with the award money.
At the lucky draw event, as the 11-month-old’s name was announced, an official at the event was heard laughing and saying, “There is more than one Liverpool player,” referring to Liverpool’s forward football player Mohamed Salah. “Yes, I named him after the football player, although I love Cristiano Ronaldo,” he said.
In November 2019, Louis Stephen Martis, a native of Udupi district in Karnataka, won $1 million in the Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire draw. He had said that he would donate 10% of the amount to charity and invest the rest in his children's education and other investments, News Karnataka had reported.