New Delhi - A court on Saturday sentenced 17 men to life in prison for gang raping four nuns outside a convent in central India two-and-a-half years ago, Press Trust of India news agency said.
The 17 can challenge their conviction in an appeals court.
District and Sessions Judge K . Jain acquitted seven others accused for lack of prosecution evidence against them, the report said.
Prosecutors said that on the night of September 23, 1998, the accused men, brandishing swords and wooden trenches, broke open the gates of a convent in the village of Nawapada, in Madhya Pradesh state - 600 kilometres south of New Delhi - after pleading with the sisters to accompany them to a patient in the area.
They then forcibly took the nuns to nearby farm fields and repeatedly raped them. The nuns belonged to the Foreign Missionary Sisters, an order providing medical help in local villages.
The sisters were all under 35 years of age and came from to the southern coastal state of Tamil Nadu.
Christians make up 2 percent of India's 1 billion people, most of whom are Hindu. Christian leaders allege attacks against missionaries and other Christian workers have increased since a Hindu nationalist-led government took over in 1998.
Hindu nationalists have accused Christians of using money to entice poor Indians to convert to Christianity - a charge Christian leaders deny. - Sapa-AP
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