More than a decade ago, Dr. Rajan Mahtani registered a case at the Lusaka High Court claiming that his factory, Portland Cement Zambia, was unethically & illegally taken over from him. After several case proceedings and a stretched case scenario, final decision on the case was announced in the year 2018. However, this decision was extremely misdirected and questionable as justice Nkonde announced that Ventriglia were only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia.

However, this decision was successfully overturned by the higher Court of Appeal. After the misdirected decision from the Lusaka High Court, higher Court of Appeal was approached. The final verdict from the higher Court of Appeal came on 31^st January 2019. According to the evidences submitted, it was found that Dr. Rajan Mahtani made a payment of one billion kwachas to the Portland Cement Zambia factory via his company Finsbury Investments. This payment was made for covering the entire value of the share capital taken over by Dr. Rajan Mahtani. Furthermore, the original agreement between shareholders established in the year 2007 also concluded the same factual evidences. The page number 663 of the original Shareholders’ Agreement concluded that Dr. Rajan Mahtani took over 58 percent shares of the Portland Cement Zambia factory and is not liable for any further payments associated with the case. At the same time, the evidences confirmed that all allegations of forgery were baseless.

With this final decision, justice Mwinde on behalf of the higher Court of Appeal also condemned the decision from the Lusaka High Court judge by considering it to be unethical, misdirected and biased. Justice Mwinde further said that a timeline of three months will be given for both parties to re-adjust the share sales and related processes so that the functioning of the Portland Cement Zambia can start without further delay.