Sri Lanka says its President did not allege India's RAW was trying to assassinate him

The Sri Lankan government has denied news reports quoting President Maithripala Sirisena as having said India's Research and Analysis Wing was plotting to assassinate him. 

The Sri Lankan government said the reports were "completely untrue". 

The media reports came ahead of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's visit to New Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speed up India-backed projects, including the East Terminal project, in the island nation.

Sirisena accused his senior coalition partner, the United National Party (UNP), of not taking seriously an alleged conspiracy to kill him and former secretary to the ministry of defence, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the economynext.Com reported quoting a ministerial source after a heated Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The minister, who declined to be named, claimed that the president said that India's external intelligence agency RAW was behind the plot.

On Wednesday, the Sri Lankan foreign ministry said it was "disappointing that matters of this nature have become the subject of distorted and erroneous media reports taking the President’s remarks out of context." 

"The ministry wishes to clarify that the media reports in this connection are baseless and false," it added. 
 
The ministry further said that "President Sirisena had discussions this morning as well as a meeting with the High Commissioner of India in Colombo." 

(With inputs from PTI)