India, July 4 -- A 20-year-old student from Pune drowned in the sea on July 1, and the police recovered his body only 43 hours later in a search operation which included the use of thermal drones and helicopters to scan the area.

The deceased, Tanishk Malhotra, had come to Kashid on a day trip with his friends, Mark Milton, Varun Tiwari, and Punya Patil, all final-year undergraduate students from Pune. The group got into the sea for a swim but misjudged the depth of the water, the strength of the waves and the current. Their swim took a tragic turn when only three of them managed to return safely to the shore and Malhotra, pulled into the sea by the strong current, went missing.

Rescue efforts were launched immediately by the Murud Poli...