NEW DELHI: An Indian court sentenced four men to life in prison on Friday for raping a call-centre operator last year inside an abandoned textile mill in the financial hub of Mumbai.

Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said the Mumbai court delivered the maximum punishment to the four after finding them guilty of rape, unnatural sex and abduction.

The court delayed until Monday the sentencing of three of the defendants and a fourth person in the rape of another woman, a photojournalist, that occurred several weeks later at the same location, Nikam said.

Nikam said he might ask for death sentences for the three defendants because of their involvement in two rape cases.

The four sentenced on Friday are expected to appeal the verdict in a higher court.

Both trials were completed in seven months by the fast-track court.

Rape cases are being handled more rapidly since December 2012, when a 23-year-old medical student was fatally gang-raped on a moving bus in New Delhi.

Widespread protests following that attack also prompted stricter anti-rape laws. Four men have been sentenced to death in the New Delhi rape case.