India, Oct. 2 -- Mohammed Zahid, a British-Pakistani ringleader, was on Wednesday sentenced to 35 years after being found guilty of 20 offences, including rape, indecency with a child, and attempting to procure a girl into having unlawful sex.

Along with Mohammed Zahid, six others were given prison sentences totalling 174 years after a Greater Manchester Police investigation into multiple child sex offences against two girls dating back nearly 25 years, news agency PTI reported.

Mohammed Zahid worked informally at a stall he ran in Rochdale Market in north-west England. He was convicted by Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court of grooming the two girls since they were aged 13 and then plied them with alcohol and drugs to be abused by t...