Apache returns 500 code on timeout instead of 408 code on RHEL 6

Issue

There are mod_rewrite rewrite rules in Apache httpd configuration file which redirects PUT requests to a custom CGI script. However, when a HTTP request is sent to httpd, if one specifies the content-length request header of X bytes and server does not receive X number of bytes within timeout period, 500 Internal Server Error instead of 408 Request Time Out is returned to the client by apache. This behavior is seen with any web-service/CGI developed behind apache.