Bhagalpur, India - An Indian court jailed 14 Hindus for life for killing 116 Muslims and burying their bodies in a cauliflower patch during one of India's bloodiest religious riots almost 20 years ago.
A lower court in Bhagalpur district in the eastern state of Bihar state said since the case did not fall under the "rarest of rare cases", the death penalty could not be awarded.
The 14 men, including a policeman, were part of a mob that hacked to death 116 Muslim men, women and children with swords and daggers on October 27, 1989. More than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in Bhagalpur in the rioting.
During a hearing in June the court found all the accused guilty.
Seven of the 14 accused are above 60 years of age, with the oldest 82, according to court documents. Six other men accused of taking part in the killings have since died, four others are on the run.
The convicts plan to appeal against the verdict in a higher court.
The Bhagalpur riots were triggered in part by a Hindu procession carrying bricks to build a temple at the site of an ancient mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya.
Hindu nationalists, who believe the site to be the birthplace of Rama, an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, tore down much of the mosque in 1992.
The same controversy fuelled deadly riots in the western Gujarat state in 2002.
About 2,500 people, most of them Muslims, died in the Gujarat riots, according to rights groups. Officials say about 1,000 people died.
Hindus account for 80 per cent of India's population while Muslims make up around 13 per cent.