An Israeli couple was fined 1,000 rupees ($23) after an Indian court found them guilty of obscenity for kissing during their marriage ceremony in a Hindu pilgrim town, newspapers reported Wednesday.
The couple had decided to have a traditional Hindu marriage while visiting Pushkar town earlier this month in the temple-studded desert state of Rajasthan, The Times of India reported.
But they infuriated the priest as they started to kiss and embrace while he was chanting vedic hymns.
The priest, along with other Hindu holy men, complained to police, who filed charges against the couple. The court in Pushkar gave its verdict Tuesday.
The Asian Age newspaper said Hindu priests were outraged.
“We will not tolerate any cultural pollution of this sort,” Ladoo Ram Sharma, president of an organization of Hindu priests in Pushkar, was quoted as saying.
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.
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.
