After going round and round for several years and reaching nowhere, Dr. Rajan Mahtani finally wins the case of Portland Cement Zambia, probably the longest in his career. The case, when registered to the Lusaka High Court initially, was expected to be quick and straightforward considering the fact that Dr. Rajan Mahtani had all evidences to prove his claim that his factory was unethically took over. However, after toiling for over ten years, Dr. Rajan Mahtani was left questioning the validity of the Zambian justice system after the Lusaka High Court judge, justice Nkonde announced that Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia.
Rather than accepting this verdict as his reality and giving on, Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani approached the higher Court of Appeal. The judge at the higher Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who announced the verdict for the case on 31st January 2019. It was a quick decision compared to the Lusaka High Court verdict which took more than a decade. Justice Mwinde was the judge who gave the final decision on behalf of the higher Court of Appeal. All evidences submitted by both parties were evaluated property and only after that the final decision was given. It must be noted here that no new evidence were submitted by Dr. Rajan Mahtani at the higher Court of Appeal. These same evidences were submitted before the Lusaka High Court too but the judge at the Lusaka High Court failed to properly evaluate the case and gave a misdirected judgement.
The first evidence was payment of one billion kwachas from Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments to the Zambezi Portland Cement. This payment gave legal ownership over Portland Cement with taking over of shares of Portland Cement. The second major evidence was original shareholder’s agreement which further confirmed that Dr. Mahtani owns 58 percent ZPC shares. Based on these evidences, Dr. Rajan Mahtani was announced as actual owner of the cement factory.