Girl, 2 college friends drown at Aksa beach

MUMBAI: Three college students, including a girl, drowned at Aksa beach on Monday. While the bodies of two of the youngsters were recovered, the third is believed to have been swept out into the sea and was untraced till late in the night. A fourth friend, who too was caught unawares by the rising tide, was rescued.
Five friends—Deepshikha Gupta (20) from Virar, Hemant Sharma (22) and Shekhar Gaikwad (22) from Kalina, Monica Fernandez (21) from Marol and Rahul Vishwakarma (21)—had gone on a picnic to the beach in Malad (West).While Rahul stayed back on the beach, the other four waded into the water. “They lost their balance due to a sudden rush of water as it was high tide,” a fire brigade officer told TOI.
Incidentally, the lifeguards present on the beach had warned the youths from entering the water.
Alerted by Rahul, the lifeguards present at the spot—who had warned the youths against venturing deep into the water—managed to pull out three of the friends, but Deepshika and Hemant died before they were brought ashore. Monica is being treated at INS Hamla even as the fire rescue team of the fire brigade and a Malwani police team are searching for Shekhar’s body.
Mumbai police spokesperson DCP Dhananjay Kulkarni ruled out foul play. DCP (Zone-11) Balsing Rajput said a case of accidental death has been registered and cautioned beach-goers against ignoring specific instructions given by the lifeguards.