Poet sued over teenage lust for Hindu deity

One of India's leading poets has been sued for confessing that he fantasised about Saraswati - the Hindu goddess of learning, knowledge and the arts - as a schoolboy.

Sunil Gangopadhyay, who has won India's highest literary awards, sent shockwaves through the country by admitting in a newspaper interview that he was so sexually aroused by Saraswati that he kissed and fondled her idol.

Images of the petite, sari-clad goddess are worshipped in schools and colleges across India.

Gangopadhyay's interview appeared in the mass-circulation Bengali daily Anand Bazar Patrika. Amid howls of protest, a retired police officer has filed a lawsuit against the poet for 'defiling' Saraswati.

But the 71-year-old author, who has penned 250 books, including best-selling novels and travelogues, is unrepentant about describing in great detail his teenage obsession with Saraswati.

The petitioner, B.B. Nandy, a controversial police officer who served a long stint in India's premier spy agency, says Gangopadhyay's 'derogatory statements have hurt the religious sentiments of those who worship goddess Saraswati'.