Rajitha says President misquoted

By Nuwan Senarathna

The Government yesterday denied the reports that President Maithripala Sirisena accused India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of plotting his assassination on Tuesday.

“The President said that the India national arrested over the alleged assassination plot to kill him will be labelled as a member of RAW, and would try to create a dispute between India and Sri Lanka,” Cabinet co-spokesman Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said, addressing the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing.

He asserted that President Sirisena had not mentioned that RAW was involved in the alleged plot to assassinate him. Dr. Senaratne also read out a statement issued by the Cabinet Secretary, which stated that the President had not said anything about RAW plotting to assassinate him.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement stating media reports of President Maithripala Sirisena’s alleged remarks were “baseless and false.”

“The attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been drawn to media reports attributed to President Maithripala Sirisena, alleging the involvement of an Indian Intelligence Service in a plot to assassinate him. The Ministry wishes to clarify that the media reports in this connection are baseless and false,” the statement said. 

The Ministry further stated that relations between Sri Lanka and India, including at the highest levels of government, are strong, encompassing multiple spheres, including intelligence sharing. “It is disappointing, therefore, that matters of this nature have become the subject of distorted and erroneous media reports taking the President’s remarks out of context, which has given rise to further media and social media speculation, and the spread of unfounded fear among the public.” 

Responding to questions over the Government analyst’s report on the voice sample of DIG Nalaka Silva, Minister Senaratne said that police cannot arrest anyone based on incomplete evidence.  “We cannot arrest anyone based on the fact that a voice of a recording is matched. We have to look at what that person was talking about, because matching voices does not indicate that person is involved in an alleged plot to assassinate the President,” he said.