An alleged associate of former education minister Partha Chatterjee from whose houses investigators had seized ₹49.8 crore and gold jewellery worth ₹5.08 crore obtained bail on Monday after two years and four months in custody.

Actress Arpita Mukherjee, 40, had been arrested along with the minister in connection with alleged corruption in recruitment in Bengal’s government-aided schools.

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court at Bichar Bhavan granted bail to the accused on the grounds that she had spent a third of the jail term the charges slapped on her could attract.

The maximum punishment for the section under which Mukherjee has been charged is seven years in jail.

“We submitted in the court that my client had completed one-third of the maximum punishment for the offence under Section 4 of PMLA 2002 and so she was entitled to be released under Section 479 of the BNS. The trial has yet to start. Our prayer has been accepted,” said Mukherjee’s lawyer Soham Banerjee.

She has to furnish a bond of ₹5 lakh and other sureties to obtain the bail.

The ED had in 2022 raided two apartments owned by Mukherjee — at Diamond City South near Tollygunge and Club Town Residency on BT Road — and seized the money and jewellery, according to the prosecution.

The ED had then said it also found 31 insurance policies taken out by Mukherjee and registered against the phone number of former minister Chatterjee.

Mukherjee’s name had cropped up when 12 property deeds in her name were found in Chatterjee’s residence.

The actress was released from jail on parole last week after her mother’s death.

The court said: “It is apparent on the face of the record that since after her arrest, the accused Arpita Mukherjee is detained in correctional home for more than two years and four months. There is no dispute that till today the trial in this case did not commence, least to say about concluded. Therefore, following the observations of the Hon’ble Apex Court and the Hon’ble Calcutta High Court as well as the notification of Government of India… the instant accused Arpita Mukherjee is entitled to be released being the first time offender having completed her detention for one-third of the maximum period of imprisonment.”

Special public prosecutors Phiroze Edulji and Bhaskar Banerjee cited a Supreme Court judgment saying the court had the discretion to allow or deny bail in PMLA cases where there is a delay in trial.

Former minister Chatterjee is still in custody.