India, Feb. 28 -- With a Delhi court discharging former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy CM Manish Sisodia and 21 others in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)'s excise policy case on Friday, attention turned to the parallel money laundering proceedings, with the accused now expected to move a court seeking quashing of the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The legal question that is set to dominate the next phase is both technical and consequential: can a PMLA prosecution survive once the predicate offence (the foundational criminal case) has been judicially knocked down?

On Friday, special judge Jitendra Singh cleared 23 accused in the CBI case, holding in ...