Sumit Kashyap's body, bearing injury marks on face and head, was found in the drain by his brother late last night.
He informed the police about it following which the body was sent for postmortem.
The deceased's family members have accused his friends Nikhil and Himanshu of killing him, police said.
The police have started looking for the accused and initiated investigation into the case.
Sumit, who worked as a painter, had gone missing on December 17 and his missing report was lodged with police two days later.