Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has rejected a request by former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa to stop the bribery and corruption investigations against his supporters, Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency reported citing a high-ranking government.

Rajapaksa had laid this condition to meet Sirisena on Wednesday afternoon which mainly focused on the future of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). "President Sirisena has clearly rejected this condition put forward by Rajapaksa as he has stressed that in order to maintain good governance, those involved in corrupt activities have to be probed. He will not interfere with the law,"the official said.

The government official, on request of anonymity, told Xinhua that Rajapaksa had also laid the condition to become the SLFP's Prime Ministerial candidate, which was once again rejected by Sirisena who stated that the party's Prime Ministerial candidate would be decided only on the votes after the parliamentary elections. "President Sirisena has given his consent for Rajapaksa to contest the parliamentary election, but he has made it clear to Rajapaksa that the people's aspirations will come first when it comes to electing the SLFP's Prime Ministerial candidate," the high ranking official said.

However, Rajapaksa has stated that recent arrests of his close associates have indicated that these were politically orchestrated to sabotage his talks with Sirisena on Wednesday.
(With inputs from Xinhua)