Mahtani's trial fails to take off

Mahtani's trial fails to take off
By Namatama Mundia
Fri 06 May 2011, 04:01 CAT

TRIAL in a case where Dr Rajan Mahtani and co-accused are charged with obtaining credit by false pretences yesterday failed to commence because the State was not ready. Dr Mahtani and co-accused David Peter Kamalarajan Kanag-anayagam are charged with one count of obtaining credit by false pretences contrary to the Laws of Zambia.

It is alleged that on dates unknown but between February 1, 2008 and February 29, 2008 in Ndola, Dr Mahtani and Kanaganayagam jointly and whilst acting together with other persons unknown, in incurring a debt obtained K6.5 billion from Finance Bank by falsely pretending that money was working capital for Cladava Mining Limited (CML) when in fact not.

When the case came up yesterday, the state told principal resident magistrate David Simusamba, that they were not ready to commence trial and applied for an adjournment to next month.

Magistrate Simusamba subsequently adjourned the case to June 15.