Written by PragyneshNew Delhi | October 3, 2025 05:46 AM IST 3 min read“Abhi body nai mili na? Ummed hai mujhe (The body has not been found yet… I am still hopeful),” said Arjun Singh (22) as he referred to the ongoing search operations to find his brother Devender (32). A flour mill worker, Devender had drowned in an open drain on Tuesday allegedly while making a video as the area near his house in South Delhi’s Mehrauli was waterlogged after a short spell of rain. Forty-eight hours on, the family was yet to get an update from the police.Inside the dusty lane, where the two brothers live on rent in a single-room home, Arjun was sitting at an abandoned office on Thursday with some neighbours.Eyes fixed on the door, hopeful that his brother could walk in any time, he said, “Iss baar gaon jaane ka plan tha sath me Hathras (UP) me… Diwali pe… (We had planned to go to our village in UP’s Hathras this Diwali).”Arjun works as a driver for truck operators across Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. However, he does not have a stable job and was dependent on his elder brother. “I was learning the ropes… My brother was teaching me… He told me that after some time, I could then start working in Delhi,” said Arjun.Around 15 years ago, Devender had come to the Capital alone when he was just 17. “At that time, me, my sisters and my mother were in Hathras. My sisters and I were young. But Devender got a job pretty quickly and started sending us money. My father used to work as a farmer on rented fields, but Devender wanted to get out,” recalled Arjun.In the years that followed, the siblings lost both their parents but Devender continued to bear his responsibilities. “He married off my two sisters. One is 18 and the other is now 30. Yet, he didn’t marry. He used to say, ‘teri naukri lagne ke baad karunga (Once you have a job, I will marry)’,”said Arjun.The area where Devender drowned on Tuesday is part of a much bigger drain, which the locals call the ‘Mehrauli Nullah’. It empties into the bigger Badarpur drain, before reaching the Yamuna river. Most of the drain is cemented, with shops and houses built on it.Story continues below this adNational Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel are also assisting the Delhi Police in the search operation. A police officer said the NDRF personnel were now searching the route of the drain near the Badarpur area, to check if Devender’s body could have flown there.Sitting beside Arjun, Krishna, a friend, said that he along with some others went inside the drain last night to find Devender.“We went after the NDRF personnel left. There used to be a grille in the drain, which would collect all the waste and plastic from the water. That could have stopped the body. It was removed some months back as some work was going to start. But the work never started. And they didn’t even put the grill back,” he said, adding that the wait continues till they get an update.Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:New Delhi