Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had told President Maithripala Sirisena that the attack on Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayaka was a "friendly fire". 

The Prime Minister, during a meeting held with the President last morning, had said some seniors within the UNP camp were behind the allegations against Ratnayaka. 

The meeting between the President and the Prime Minister took place after the President had allegedly told three UNP Ministers that Ratnayaka was protecting the former President's Chief of Staff Gamini Senarath. 

A few days before the meeting, addressing the second death commemoration of Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera, civil society activist Prof. Sarath Wijesuriya alleged that the Law and Order Minister was protecting 'the thieves'. 

At the meeting, Wickremesinghe had stressed that the allegations against Ratnayaka were completely baseless and he personally verified the matter with the government intelligence agencies. 

The Prime Minister had also pointed out that the Minister's integrity was never a question. 

In a statement, however, Minister Ratnayaka said yesterday that only a handful of bankrupt political elements with hidden agendas were behind the "propaganda campaign" against him.

"This a baseless and malicious allegation. I have no reason to meet a suspect in a corruption case which involves billions of public money. I have nothing to gain by holding meeting with a person of that "calibre.", he said, in the statement.