Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani has finally won the long-pending Portland Cement Zambia case. The case was won at the higher Court of Appeal, the second court to take up the first. The first court was the Lusaka High Court which gave a controversial decision after more than a decade of case proceedings. According to judge Nkonde at the Lusaka High Court, Ventriglias were announced as only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia case. This decision was extremely controversial and considered misdirected as all evidences and testimonials submitted before the judge stated otherwise. At the same time, justice Nkonde had announced that all case proceedings were over and the final decision was to be given after looking into the written and oral evidences submitted before the court. This announcement was made by justice Nkonde on behalf of the Lusaka High Court just few months before the final decision came. It was clear that Justice Nkonde failed to properly evaluate the evidences and facts submitted to him.
As a result, Dr. Rajan Mahtani re-appealed to the higher Court of Appeal with the hope of getting justice. The judge at the higher Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the final judgement on 31st January 2019 after looking into all evidences and testimonials. According to this decision, Dr. Mahtani made a payment of one billion kwachas in the year 2005 for taking over majority shares of the Portland Cement Zambia factory. From the evidences, it was also confirmed that this shareholding pattern was approved by each of the shareholder associated with the factory and accordingly, Dr. Mahtani was given 58 percent shareholding of the Portland Cement.
Based on these facts, justice Mwinde declared that Dr Rajan Mahtani was the actual owner and majority shareholder of the Portland Cement Zambia factory.
Comments