MUMBAI, Feb. 13 -- A special PMLA court last week rejected former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh's plea to defer framing of charges against him in a money laundering case linked to alleged extortion from Mumbai orchestra bars until charges are framed in the predicate offence registered by the CBI. Special judge Mahesh K Jadhav also refused his request to call a CBI status report on the pending aspects of that probe. Deshmukh's counsel argued that although the CBI filed a chargesheet in June 2022, parts of the investigation remained open, and the PMLA court should wait until the predicate case reached the charge stage, citing Supreme Court rulings that money laundering proceedings cannot survive if the accused is discharged in the scheduled offence. The Enforcement Directorate opposed the plea, saying Section 44 of the PMLA permits proceedings to continue regardless of the predicate case's pendency and that the application was a delaying tactic. The court noted Deshmukh had not sought discharge in the predicate case and termed his request to defer charges "not tenable in the eye of law," calling the demand for a CBI report "totally unwarranted."...