Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee is trying desperately to distance the party and the state government from the leaders tainted in the Saradha chit fund scam that has seen thousands of people duped of their savings.

Speaking to party workers, Mamata said: “Few outsiders could have been guilty, but that doesn’t mean that all our party members are thieves. They are trying to paint the entire party and government with same brush.”

However, her statement has created confusion among the rank and file of the TMC as many believe that she is now trying to create a distance with Srinjoy Bose, TMC Member of Parliament (MP) who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last week.

Others believe that Mamata’s statement was aimed at “guests” like painter Shuvaprasanna and not at Bose who was also the editor of TMC mouthpiece Jago Bangla.

“It will be very difficult to brush of Srinjoy as he and most importantly his father has been a close confidant of Mamata from the very beginning,” said a TMC leader.

Mamata’s statement is consistent with her strategy ever since the scam came to light. First she distanced herself from Kunal Ghosh and then TMC vice-president Rajat Mazumdar. Later when Mukul Roy’s name came up, the de facto number two in the TMC, his powers were curtailed. Even Madan Mitra, the state transport minister, has been asked not to attend cabinet meetings.

However, the confusion about Bose started with TMC leader Derek O Brian’s statement on the party’s website where he said, “Few journalists were nominated by our party to the Rajya Sabha [upper House of parliament] who were not with TMC from the very beginning. This can be termed as breaking the party structure to include few.”

Bose is the owner and editor-in-chief of a Bengali daily, where Ghosh was a former employee.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which was tasked with indentifying the money trail in Saradha scam, has again summoned painter Shuvaprasanna and has asked him to be present in person. The ED, which conducted raids in Mumbai last week in connection with the scam, has found that the painter had bought three hotels in that city mostly with funds from the Saradha group.

“We are almost certain that the money to buy these hotels was sourced from Sudipto Sen [promoter of the group]. We had earlier served him three notices. If he doesn’t turn up in person, we will take the necessary legal steps,” said an ED official.

“It will be very difficult for him [Shuvaprasanna] to escape the law as his dealing with Sudipto Sen is all out in the open. He being a painter of repute should not have got involved in all these commercial dealings,” said a professor of Art College in Kolkata.

Shuvaprasanna has been charged with selling a defunct television channel to Sen for an undisclosed amount.