NEW DELHI/GHAZIABAD/NOIDAThe ground-floor residence in Sunder Nagri where a 45-year-old man reportedly drowned in his sleep. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)Four more rain-related deaths were recorded across Delhi-NCR on Friday, even as there was an intermittent pause in rainfall, taking the monsoon death toll to eight over the past two days. A 45-year-old man drowned in his flooded ground-floor residence in Delhi’s Sundar Nagri, while two children drowned in open plots and pits in separate incidents in Ghaziabad, and a 27-year-old man fell into a three-to-four-foot pit in Noida’s Sector 58.According to details shared by the police, the incident in Delhi took place on Thursday evening, when the man was reportedly sleeping. They identified the deceased as Dheeraj Rao, of Nagpur in Maharashtra, who worked at a wedding card printing factory in Shahdara.Rao’s brother, Rahul, 40, who lives on the first floor of the same building, said his brother had called him around 3pm on Thursday. “When he entered the house, he found it flooded to above knee level. He called me and asked me to help pump out the water. I told him I would come by 7pm,” he said.According to Rahul, Rao reportedly slept on a charpoy inside the flooded house, later fell off it during his sleep and drowned. “He was alone inside the house, so we can only assume what may have happened,” he said.Rahul said that at around 5pm, a relative went to check on him, found Rao submerged in the water and alerted the family. He said that his brother was reportedly drunk and had told his relatives he was going home to sleep.Rao’s neighbour and the president of the residents’ welfare association, Ramesh Kumar, 66, said this was the first instance of such increased flooding in the locality. “It has never happened before, but on Thursday our entire street was flooded. All the ground-floor houses were filled with at least knee-deep water,” he said.Police said legal proceedings have been initiated.The deaths in Ghaziabad were reported from Masuri and Ankur Vihar localities, which were severely inundated following spells of very heavy rainfall of 134mm-164mm on Wednesday.A five-year-old boy drowned in a water-filled plot while playing with his friends around 12.45pm on Thursday, officials said.“The boy slipped in and by the time his family could intervene, he had drowned. His family did not inform the police and by the time the police reached his house, his last rites had been performed. The incident was recounted by his friends and locals. The family did not opt for an autopsy or a complaint,” said Harendra Malik, station house officer of the Masuri police station.The boy’s grandfather, Mohammad Bhure, told HT that the boy was a Class 1 student, but had skipped school due to heavy rainfall. “The boys he was playing with informed us, and we, along with locals, rushed to help. He was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead. We performed his last rites. It was an accident, so we did not inform the police,” Bhure said.On Friday, the police recovered the body of a six-year-old boy who went missing on Thursday from Milakpur village in Ghaziabad.“There was heavy waterlogging in the area due to rain, and the boy went out around 7pm on Thursday. As he did not return, his family searched for him and informed police on Friday morning. Around 11am on Friday, his family spotted his body in a deep pit that was heavily waterlogged,” Amardeep Maurya, assistant commissioner of police (Ankur Vihar), told HT.Yogendra Pawar, SHO of Ankur Vihar police station, said, “The pit was about 5-6 feet deep and was filled with rainwater. The body was taken out and sent for autopsy. The family did not give any complaint.”In the incident in Noida, a 27-year-old man fell into a three-to-four-foot-deep pit on a waterlogged road in Sector 58 around 8.50am on Thursday. Although the incident was noticed by passersby, people hesitated in helping him due to sparks from an electricity pole in the vicinity, police said.“He was walking along the side of the waterlogged road with other people when he mistakenly stepped into an opening in the concrete slab covering the drain and fell in,” said a police officer involved in the investigation, who did not wish to be named.The officer said, “The incident was captured on a CCTV camera installed near the spot. It was seen that a man approached to rescue him but stepped back. Later, other people rescued him.”Police identified the deceased by his first name as Aryan, who lived in Chaura village in Sector 22. He worked at a factory in C Block of Sector 57.Police said the man was rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead. Subsequently, the police were alerted, and his body was sent for a post-mortem examination.“Aryan’s family members also suspected that he suffered an electric shock. However, we found that the electricity supply in the area had been shut off when the incident took place,” said the officer cited above.Police said they have preserved his viscera to ascertain the cause of death.