CHENNAI: A road rage incid­ent escal­ated into the murder of two youths near Man­ava­lanagar in Tiruval­lur on Fri­day night. The police have arres­ted four people in con­nec­tion with the murder.

The deceased were Parthiban (32) and Sug­umar (31). Parthiban was a clerk at a bank in Sevva­pet, while Sug­umar worked as a loan col­lec­tion agent. Their friend, Kesava­moorthy (23), was also attacked, sur­vived with injur­ies and is under­go­ing treat­ment at the Tiruval­lur gov­ern­ment hos­pital.

The trio resided Tiruval­lur’s Ondikup­pam, police said. On Fri­day, they vis­ited Kailasa Kona Falls in Andhra Pra­desh and were on their way home. Around 7 pm, they hal­ted near a bakery on Tiruval­lur High Road when two men rode past them rashly. The trio raised their voices at them, which led to a quar­rel.

The men on the bikes left and returned with two more people. They traced the trio and pel­ted stones at them.

When the trio were dis­or­i­ented, the group attacked them with weapons and fled the scene. A passerby moved Sug­umar and Kesava­moorthy to the hos­pital, while Parthiban died at the spot. Sug­umar suc­cumbed without respond­ing to treat­ment.

Over 100 vil­la­gers blocked the Tiruval­lur-Poo­namal­lee Road, demand­ing strict action against the assail­ants. The police later paci­fied the vil­la­gers and dis­persed them.

Later, the police roun­ded up the sus­pects, Neelakandan (30), Jyot­ish (34), Vinothku­mar (36) and Jawa­har (23).

All the accused were remanded in judi­cial cus­tody. Neelakandan is a mem­ber of the BSP, while Jawa­har is a TVK mem­ber, police said.