A 58-year-old autodriver who won Rs 12 crore Kerala lottery.

After intense speculations, a 58-year-old auto-rickshaw driver from Ernakulam district of Kerala was adjudged the winner of the Rs 12 crore Thiruvonam Bumper Lottery instituted by the state government.

Jayapalan P R, a resident of Maradu in Kochi, was certified as the first prize winner of the lottery after he submitted the original copy of the prize-winning ticket at the nearby bank branch. After deducting taxes and the agency’s commission, he’s poised to receive a sum of nearly Rs 7.4 crore.

Jayapalan told the local media that he had bought the ticket from Meenakshi Lucky Centre, an agency which has brought luck to many, in Thripunithura on September 10. He had picked out the particular prize-winning ticket as the number sounded “fancy” to him. The ticket cost Rs 300. He said that he purchases lottery tickets on a regular basis and has won Rs 5,000 on an earlier occasion

A head-on collision between a car and a Staterun RTC bus resulted in the death of a car driver, while 11 passengers suffered injuries near Eklaspur in Manthani Mandal of Peddapalli district on Wednesday morning.

Ramagundem Commissioner of Police S. Chandrasekhar Reddy said the accident took place around 8 a.m. when the car driver, Thati Vinith (22) from Khansaipet, suddenly turned his vehicle to the right, and to avoid hitting the bus driver veered off to left. The impact of the accident was such both the vehicles had a head-on collision and fell into a small gorge.

Police said that the bus, which belongs to Parakal depot, was going towards Hanumakonda from Bellampalli. While Vinith suffered severe injuries and died on the spot, the injured were shifted to Government Hospital, Manthani, for immediate medical assistance. The bus had 16 commuters on board at the time of the accident.

A case was registered and a probe is on. Police had engaged a crane to pull out the mangled vehicles from the gorge.