UAE | General

10-year-old walks away with record-breaking Dh5m

Mohit Himthani, 10, from India, won Dh5 million last week after his dad, Laxnan, bought 15 tickets for the Mashreq Millionaire raffle during the Dubai Shopping Festival and walked away with the largest prize in the history of the UAE.

  • By Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 01:22 February 22, 2008
  • Gulf News

Dubai: Mohit Himthani, 10, from India, won Dh5 million last week after his dad, Laxnan, bought 15 tickets for the Mashreq Millionaire raffle during the Dubai Shopping Festival and walked away with the largest prize in the history of the UAE.

"It is such a shock. Mohit knows that he has won but he is very small. We will save the money so my children can continue their studies," said Himthani.

He added that he has been buying tickets for the last eight years.

"I never thought it could happen. We were ready to go back to India because of the high cost of living. We would have left in the coming months but now we are staying," Himthani told Gulf News.

Schooling is very important for the father-of-two and he plans to use the money to push his son and daughter to achieve great things.

"He is a very good student. His best subjects are Arabic and maths," said the accountant. "He always gets full marks. He wants to be a pilot - so maybe he can buy his own plane!"

In the coming months, the focus will be on doing well in school exams after which plans for the future will be made by the family. Himthani said he will not get a bigger house, or bigger car and he will stay in his job for the time being. "Nobody can know what the future holds. We are very happy but I will continue to buy tickets!" he said.

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