Chicago police suspect that an Indian-American man who won a $1 million lottery last year and died soon after, was murdered.
According to a Jan. 7 Chicago Tribune report, Urooj Khan, 46, owner of several dry cleaning businesses and rental properties in Little India and elsewhere, died last July 20, a month after hitting the jackpot with two instant-game tickets he bought at the 7-Eleven near his house in Chicago’s North Side.
A week after he was buried following what was considered a death by natural causes, a relative contacted the police to express doubts.Tests by the medical examiner’s office found enough cyanide in Khan’s
blood to cause his death.
Medical Examiner Stephen J. Cina told the Tribune that Khan’s body was to be exhumed to verify with greater accuracy how much cyanide he consumed or inhaled. The death is now being described as a homicide. Police also questioned Khan's wife Shabana Ansari, 32, for several hours, her attorney Steven Kozicky told the Tribune.
Ansari is also quoted in news reports saying that police had questioned her about the ingredients she used in the food, and that after the death was declared a homicide, police had taken samples of food from the house after toxicology reports showed lethal levels of cyanide in Urooj Khan's blood.
News reports say Khan ate dinner at his West Rogers Park home an hour after returning from work.
He began screaming some time later while in bed, and was declared dead at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, Ill.
An expert featured on CNN said the screams described were typical of anyone suffering cyanide poisoning. The CNN report also interviewed the store owner where Khan bought lottery tickets, sometimes whole books of instant game tickets costing around $600, and had won hundreds and sometimes $1,000 on earlier tickets. The $1 million lottery ticket was just one of two he purchased before his death. He was supposed to collect $425,000 the day after he died.
The Tribune spoke to Shabana Ansari about her husband. The couple also have a teenage daughter. Both wife and daughter were in the home when Khan died. Shabana Ansari told the Tribune her husband was an
“extraordinary, nice, kind and lovable” man and “the best husband on the entire planet.”
