An Indian investigative journalist on Wednesday won Britain's little-coveted Bad Sex in Fiction Award for a turbo-charged account of a lovers' tryst that likens their amours to a speeding Bugatti.

Aniruddha Bahal, who posed as an arms dealer to expose an Indian military bribery scandal in 2001, flew to London to receive the prize from rock singer Sting before a 500-strong audience.

Now in its 11th year, the dubious honor is awarded by the Literary Review magazine for the most inept description of sexual intercourse in a novel.

Bahal beat rival nominees including John Updike, Paul Theroux and Paulo Coelho, thanks to a passage from his novel "Bunker 13."

Bahal's hero says he feels like an "ancient Aryan warlord" after discovering a Swastika shaved into an intimate part of his female companion's anatomy.

As the temperature between the two rises, Bahal shifts gear in a blur of motoring metaphors.

"She picks up a Bugatti's momentum. You want her more at a Volkswagen's steady trot... Squeeze the maximum mileage out of your gallon of gas. But she's eating up the road with all cylinders blazing."

Previous winners include AA Gill, Sebastian Faulks and Melvyn Bragg.

The winner of this year's Bad Sex in Fiction Award says he can see the funny side in winning the prize.

Indian writer Aniruddha Bahal told BBC News Online: "I'm not one to shy away from having a laugh at my own expense."

Mr Bahal won the award, presented in London by Sting on Wednesday night, for an extract from his novel Bunker 13.

The author, best known as a reporter who uncovered match fixing in cricket, said he was happy to win the award, beating Paul Theroux and John Updike.

Mr Bahal said he was happy to accept an award for sexually explicit writing because in India there was too much censorship. He said the award was a "rebellious gesture".

... The Delhi-based writer told BBC News Online he had heard of the award in India but "never thought that one day I would be nominated for it".

... As a journalist Bahal has reported on a wide range of subjects, from environment to defence, and is best known for his investigations into match-fixing in cricket.

In 2001, he exposed corruption among Indian defence officials, after covertly filming them taking bribes.

He said his publishers had flown him over to accept the award and he "took it as an opportunity to see my friends in London".

He also said he was "a bit peeved" he had won. "Lots of other writers in India thought my book had great sex writing," he said.

And he said that winning the prize has not made him less proud of his writing. "I wouldn't change a word," he said.