New Delhi: Maintaining that India was not given a "fair chance" to make its point of view in the Malaysian High Court, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on December 13 said it would surely file an appeal against the judgement rejecting extradition of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi to stand trial in the Bofors case.

Addressing a press conference hours after the Malaysian court gave the ruling, CBI Director P C Sharma termed the verdict "distressing" despite all its efforts and placing of facts before the court.

The CBI will pursue the request aggressively and with full strength, he said, adding an appeal would be filed against the court's verdict.

Referring to the court's observations about its inability to extradite Quattrocchi in view of the failure of the prosecution to supply the court with the charges against him, Sharma said there were procedures in India under which charges could be framed and chargesheet filed against an accused only in his presence.

That was why CBI had been seeking his presence to stand trial in India, he said.

Asserting that CBI had full respect for the judicial process in Malaysia, he said, "It is natural for a judicial proceeding that both sides are heard. But we were not given a chance to present our view."

To a question, he said he was surprised over the development because the legal system and criminal laws in both the countries were not vastly different.

The CBI chief said the agency had "limitations" in fighting the case "because our request is to a foreign country and a Malaysian lawyer, instead of an Indian advocate, is fighting the case on our behalf.

"We have to put our point of view through the Malaysian authorities," he said.

To a question, Sharma disagreed that the CBI had failed to get hold of Indian fugitives and asserted "the arm of law is reaching the criminals wherever they are".

PTI