Missing Indian man’s body found after massive search

PTI, Jul 15, 2019, 4:39 PM IST

Melbourne: The body of a 21-year-old Indian student in Australia who went missing was found on Monday in Victoria’s Marysville region, according to police, which also emptied a local dam in search of him.

Poshik Sharma, a university student in Melbourne, was reported missing last Friday morning after leaving his friends at the Duck Inn on Thursday afternoon.

The body was found in bush land on the outskirts of Marysville on Monday, four days after Sharma left a Marysville pub alone following a “minor disagreement” with friends, police was quoted as saying by the Age. The police said that the death is not being treated as suspicious.

A search operation involving over 90 people from Victoria Police, the State Emergency Service, Country Fire Authority and specialist teams worked in and around the town of Marysville during the weekend to trace Sharma.

Search and rescue crews drained a dam, while police dogs used one of Sharma’s socks to try and track his scent on Sunday, the report said.

Police Inspector David Ryan, who was leading the police search, said it was “devastating for the family”.

“They were very hopeful that with the effort that was going in that we would find Poshik and it’s not a good outcome,” he said.

“Our search operations have been closed down and unfortunately Poshik Sharma has been found deceased just on the outskirts of Marysville,” Ryan said, adding “We’ve finally made notifications to Sharma’s family, so they’ve now got care around them and people with them to support them.”

“It’s not something we expected to have happened and it is devastating for the family. They were obviously very upset.”

The group had drinks and played pool at the Duck Inn pub on Thursday when they according to police had a “minor disagreement”.

”We understand there was a dispute between them and he decided to leave, Ryan said. The dispute was not significant enough to warrant him walking into bush and not coming back, he added.

Search crews had faced difficult weather conditions over the weekend as the temperatures dropped below zero and snow fell at nearby Lake Mountain.

Sharma was last seen trying to hitch hike a car opposite the pub. The police will prepare a report for the Coroner.