A secret location at the Bodhiraja Mawatha in Maligawatte, where auctioning of infants had gone on for sometime, was raided yesterday (8) by the Colombo Central Intelligence Bureau.

A mother of three children and eight other women suspects along with a 10-day-old infant girl were also taken into custody

At the time of the raid, the infant was about to be sold for Rs 25,000, the police said.

"It was in fact an auction and the highest bidders got infants, according to our preliminary investigations," a senior police officer told The Island.

"That was why several women had gathered there who did not know one another," he said adding that they could have been prospective buyers looking for children.

The infant’s mother had returned from West Asia, where she was employed, for confinement here.

A resident of Matugama, she intended to go abroad again, police said.

The woman who ran the ‘auction house’ had been helped by a number of brokers who brought childless couples to the place for a commission.

Colombo Central Intelligence Bureau Chief Senior Superintendent T. S. Raji is heading investigations assisted by Maradana OIC CI Amal Sirimanne, IP Nishantha Sanjiva, Jayawardena, PS 17644, Dissanayake., PS 176124 Wahid, PC 17361, Gunawardena and PC 54578 Kulasekera.