Tourist charged for bathing in sacred lake

Indian police have brought charges against a Finnish tourist for bathing naked in a holy lake in a Hindu pilgrim town, a police officer affirmed.

Police said the tourist walked to her hotel in the nude after taking a dip in the lake in Pushkar in the desert state of Rajasthan Saturday, angering several local people and priests.

"We have framed charges of indecency against the lady tourist from Finland under section 294 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)," Sugan Singh, a police officer in Pushkar, told.

Under India's obscenity laws, the tourist can be imprisoned for three months or pay a fine.

Pushkar has a famous temple dedicated to Brahma - the Hindu god of creation - and is popular with foreign tourists who come for its desert ambience, camel safaris and annual camel fair.

Last month, an Israeli couple was fined 1,000 rupees after an Indian court found them guilty of obscenity for kissing during their marriage ceremony in Pushkar.

India has tough obscenity laws and kissing in public is frowned upon in the largely conservative country. Last October, local residents in the western state complained to authorities that a group of Israeli women had danced naked near Pushkar, Reuters reports.

V.Y.