After years of struggle that seemed to never end, Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani is finally happy. This happiness came from the transparent and quick judgement given by the higher Court of Appeal. However, this path has been extremely difficult for Dr. Rajan Mahtani as the case went from not only one, but two different courts in Zambia. While one of these courts was Lusaka High Court, the other was higher Court of Appeal. Now that the final verdict from the higher Court of Appeal is known to everyone, it is surprising to note that it took more than a decade for the lower court, Lusaka HC, to announce verdict on the Portland Cement case and that too was a controversial one. Despite all evidences and testimonials favouring Dr. Rajan Mahtani’s claims, the final decision from the Lusaka High Court concluded Ventriglias as the only shareholders of the Portland Cement.
This verdict was then successfully refuted by the judge at the higher Court of Appeal. Justice Mwinde made the final announcement on the Portland Cement Zambia case on 31st January 2019, around nine months after Dr. Rajan Mahtani made a re-appeal before the case. After looking into the evidences, testimonials and all associated details, justice Mwinde confirmed that it is Dr. Rajan Mahtani who is the actual owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory. For instance, a critical evidence submitted before the court was the proof of transfer of one billion kwachas from Finsbury Investments, a holding company of Dr. Rajan Mahtani, to the Zambezi Portland Cement limited. This amount was equal to USD 250,000 and covered the entire share capital value of the Zambezi Portland Cement shares. Furthermore, it was clearly written on the page number 663 of the original shareholders agreement that the payment made by Dr. Rajan Mahtani gave him ownership of 58 percent shares of the factory.