31st January 2019 was an important day for Dr. Rajan Mahtani. On this day, he was given back the Portland Cement Zambia which he claimed more than a decade ago. After Lusaka High Court failed to provide justice to the Portland Cement Zambia case, Dr. Rajan Mahtani approached the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal is one of the highest level courts in Zambia and provided the final decision on the Portland Cement Zambia case around nine months after the case was registered there. According to the decision from Court of Appeal, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares at the factory. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares at the factory and is the minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. Based on this shareholding pattern, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the legal owner of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory.
Furthermore, all forgery related allegations were dismissed by the Court of Appeal judge. It was held that the process of mechanically placing signatures was in fact, an established process and commonly practices at the Portland Cement Zambia. It was also found that critical member of the Ventriglias family, Claudio Ventriglia, engaged in similar practice while undergoing employment contract with respect to the Portland Cement Zambia factory. As a result, all forgery related allegations have been dismissed.
While giving this judgement, Justice Mwinde from the Court of Appeal also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement as this decision was biased and without any evidentiary proof. By giving this decision at the Court of Appeal, the judge effectively reversed the judgement from the Lusaka High Court judge.
