Mohali, January 20

The Mahant of Trivedi Camp in Dera Bassi has hit Rs 5-crore jackpot by winning the Punjab Lohri Bumper lottery on Wednesday.

Mahant Dwarka Das, 88, and his family were elated to hear the news from the lottery agent from whom they had bought a ticket. The Mahant runs the ancestral Dera Jai Satguru Baba Lal Dyal Ji at Trivedi Camp. He has two sons — Narendra, who runs a grocery shop, and Mukesh, who works in a private firm.

Mukesh, who had been buying lottery tickets for the past 10 years, said this time Dwarka Das had gone with his grandson Nikhil to buy the ticket from a Zirakpur stall. Dwarka Das said he would spend part of the money on renovating the dera building, while the rest would be utilised in consultation with the family. Youngsters in the family distributed Rs 500 notes outside their home on hearing the news.