KATHMANDU, Nepal – A court has jailed a man for a record 170 years for trafficking teenage girls to work as prostitutes in India, a public prosecutor said Thursday (July 12th), according to AFP.

Bajir Singh Tamang, 37, was convicted of recruiting teenagers from the countryside with promises of better lives, to work as maids in the Middle East and India before selling them to Indian brothel owners.

Six victims under the age of 16 who were rescued by human rights groups in 2007 and 2009, pressed charges against Tamang, district attorney Krishna Jung Shah told AFP.

"He was charged for illegally recruiting the girls, selling them to Indian brothels and also running a prostitution ring," said Shah, the government prosecutor in Sindhupalchok, the central district where Tamang was convicted.

Shah said the sentence, the longest in the country's 62-year judicial history, had been made possible after new sentencing guidelines were introduced five years ago to promote longer jail terms for human trafficking.

Shah said Tamang would also be fined 1.3 million rupees ($14,679).

The district court also jailed two of Tamang's accomplices for 12 and 16 years.