New Delhi - An Indian businessman and his domestic servant were Friday sentenced to death in the first of several cases related to the rape and murder of 19 people, most of them children, in a Delhi suburb in 2006.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation court convicted businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and Surendra Koli of raping and killing 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar.

Pronouncing the sentence, Judge Rama Jain held that their crime fell in the "rarest of rare" category that deserved capital punishment.

"The two have been sentenced to death by hanging. It is a historic decision and will reinforce the faith of people in the Indian justice system," prosecution lawyer Khalid Khan told reporters.

The two men were arrested in December 2006 after skeletal remains and body parts of several children were found in a drain behind Pandher's home in Delhi's Noida suburb. The remains included 15 skulls.

Eventually, police investigations revealed the remains belonged to four women and 15 girls who had been raped, mutilated and killed. Most of the girls belonged to poor families living in a slum near Pandher's house.

Pandher and Koli were later charged with murder, rape and abduction in 19 cases.

Friday's verdict came after a two-year trial. Both Pandher and Koli are likely to appeal against the trial court's verdict in a higher court.

This was the first verdict in the killings, which have shocked India with the overtones of sexual abuse and cannibalism. The media dubbed Pandher's residence the "house of horrors."

The CBI charge sheet stated that Haldar was strangled and then cut to pieces by Koli with two kitchen knives and an axe four years ago, the IANS news agency reported.

Families of the victims alleged that Koli was suffering from necrophilia (urge to have sex with a corpse) and necrophagia (urge to eat the flesh of a body), the report said. (dpa)