MUMBAI, May 24 -- A special PMLA court has refused to drop the money laundering case against alleged drug trafficker Ali Asgar Shirazi, ruling that the proceedings can continue despite his discharge from the predicate offences, as appeals against those orders are pending before the Bombay High Court. Special judge RB Rote said the scheduled offences still exist as the FIRs registered by Mumbai police have not been quashed. The court also noted that both the Mumbai police crime branch and the ED have challenged Shirazi's discharge in the predicate offences before the high court. "There is no acquittal of all the accused in the predicate offence. There is no discharge of all the accused in the predicate offence. The proceeding of predicate offence has not been quashed by the Competent Court in its entirety," Rote said. The ED case is based on two FIRs lodged in 2023 at JJ Marg and Jogeshwari police stations over alleged trafficking of psychotropic medicines to the United States and the United Kingdom. Shirazi told the court that he had been discharged in one predicate case in December 2024 and in the second in March 2025. He argued that once the scheduled offences no longer survived against him, the money laundering case under the PMLA should also be dropped. The ED opposed the plea, arguing that money laundering is a separate offence and citing the Supreme Court's 2023 judgment in the Pavana Dibbur case (2023) which ruled that an accused in a PMLA case need not be named in the predicate offence. Accepting the ED's submissions, the court held that money laundering is "a separate offence, distinct from the scheduled offence." The judge also noted that the prosecution had placed sufficient prima facie material on record to show Shirazi's alleged involvement in money laundering activities....