Urooj Khan was an Indian immigrant, living in Chicago, Illinois in the USA, described as a kind and generous man who worked extremely hard. He worked in a dry cleaning shop for many years, eventually opening his own shop.

In July, he was in a local shop, and despite deciding some time ago that he would no longer gamble, for some reason he decided that day to buy two lottery scratch tickets. He won 425,000 dollars and promptly handed the young man working behind the shop counter 100 dollars, apologizing that it was all the money he had on him.

Urooj rushed home and duly told his wife and daughter. Soon after the three appeared on a local TV station, as required by the rules of the lottery, to avoid claims that payouts were fictitious. He was presented with one of those oversized cheques and told the 4 or 5 reporters that had bothered to turn up, that he intended to invest most of the money in his business and donate the rest to a local childrens’ charity.

That evening the family sat down to a special curry, cooked in celebration of the family’s good fortune. A few hours later, Urooj was screaming in agony. He was taken to hospital where he later died. It was declared a heart attack and written off as natural causes.

However, no one reckoned with Urooj’s brother who pestered the authorities into re-investigating the case. He felt there was something suspicious about his sibling’s death. He was right… Urooj was exhumed and a full autopsy performed. The result was that huge amounts of cyanide was found in the body.

To-date, nobody has been charged with his murder. The court has allowed the money and assets of Urooj to be divided amongst his family, but point out that the case is still an active homicide investigation.

So let this be a lesson to all of you that were jealous of our local 100 million winner… money doesn’t always bring happiness. (But I bet it helps a bit!)