After A Decade-Long Chase And Winning The Portland Cement Case, Dr. Mahtani Has New Challenge At Hand

Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani’s challenges have not completed yet. On 31st January 2019, he was given the legal ownership of the Portland Cement Zambia factory after more than a decade of legal fights across two different courts. The first court was Lusaka High Court which wherein the case was registered initially. The court took the longest time and despite this, shared a verdict which was extremely controversial. According to the verdict by Lusaka High Court judge Nkonde, the ownership of the Portland Cement Zambia factory was given to the Ventriglia family. After this misdirected decision, higher Court of Appeal was approached. The judge at the higher Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde and unlike the previous judge, justice Mwinde looked into all evidences and testimonials and only after that gave the final decision on the case.

Based on the facts, evidences and testimonials submitted before the court, it was found that Dr. Rajan Mahtani made legal payment worth one billion kwachas to the Zambezi Portland Cement limited. This amount, which also equalled USD 250,000, covered the entire value of the share capital which was taken over by Dr. Rajan Mahtani. Furthermore, several other evidences were critical in arriving at the decision. For instance, it was found that the process of electronically affixing signatures was a common practice at the Zambezi Portland Cement factory and also an acceptable one. As such, all allegations of forgery were discarded by the higher Court of Appeal judge by confirming the process of be legal and under the ethical standards of the factory.

Based on the evidences, justice Mwinde announced Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani as the actual owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory. The next critical challenge for Dr. Mahtani is to revive the factory which has been turned into a destitute position. While this challenge is even more difficult that getting the factory back, Dr. Rajan Mahtani hopes to bring it to its former glory.