The 27-year-old Frenchwoman arrested by Indian police and released on bail after posting a video of her showing her naked on a sacred bridge in the northern Indian city of Rishikesh, apologized on Sunday. "I am sorry to have hurt the local community," said the young woman whose police only released the first name: Marie-Hélène. "I did not realize the cultural specificities".
She faces up to three years in prison
Detained on Thursday, the woman was released on bail and her cell phone confiscated. She faces up to three years in prison if found guilty of violating the laws that regulate internet use in the country. "She told us that she was selling pearl necklaces online, and that the video was intended to promote her business," the head of the police station where the Frenchwoman was taken, RK Saklani, told AFP.
“Maybe in France these things are not considered questionable,” he said. "But Rishikesh is a sacred place and the Lakshman Jhula (pedestrian bridge)" on which she filmed herself, "is the place where (the Hindu gods) Ram, his brother Lakshman and his wife Sita crossed the Ganges," said explained the head of the police station.
A gesture of solidarity towards "oppressed Indian women"?
In a statement given to AFP, the Frenchwoman gave another version of the reasons for her gesture: "I chose to partially undress myself on the Lakshman Jhula because every time I crossed this bridge I felt harassed ... My Indian sisters and my fellow hikers surely felt the same, "she said, stressing that it was a gesture of solidarity with" the oppressed Indian women ".
The bridge is not far from the ashram where the Beatles chose to take a spiritual retreat in 1968, and Rishikesh, at the foot of the Himalayas, is popular with hikers and yoga enthusiasts. Present since March in Rishikesh, according to the police, the Frenchwoman also photographed herself naked in a hotel room. The police were put on alert by the publication of these photos and the video on social networks.