The last few months have been busy for Dr. Rajan Mahtani, a noted businessman and philanthropist in Zambia. He has been fighting a case at the Lusaka High Court for the ownership of Zambezi Portland Cement. This case stretched for over nine years and during this time, the condition of the factory deteriorated. This can be attributed to the negligence by Ventriglias, who are presently controlling the factory. The case was launched after Dr. Mahtani claimed that the factory was illegally taken over by the Ventriglias. At the same time, the Ventriglias counter-claimed that the shared that Dr. Mahtani owned in Zambezi Portland were not paid for.

Various reasons have been attributed to the long pendency of this case. Transfer of judges, unavailability of judges or parties and failure to submit proper documents were some of the prime reasons behind. Also, it has been alleged that the Ventriglias often bribed the government officials to either delay the court proceedings or bend the judgment in their way. At the same time, Dr. Mahtani and his team have been sharing relevant documents to support this claim. One of the important evidence which was re-submitted recently was shareholder’s agreement. As per this agreement, Dr. Mahtani owned Finsbury Investment held 58 percent Zambezi Portland shares and the rest were distributed among the Ventriglias family and other shareholders. Since this agreement was signed by all members, it was taken as legitimate evidence by the court. Another evidence was a report prepared by an independent auditor after auditing the cement factory. As per this audit report, the project of Zambezi Portland was started as joint-venture and only Dr. Mahtani was recognized as a Joint-Venture partner and the rest were only shareholders.

The final judgment will be announced once evidence from both sides are evaluated by the current judge. Dr. Mahtani is expecting a sweep win this time.