CHENNAI: A 22-year-old youth was murdered while his friend escaped with injuries after a six-member gang, headed by a truck driver, attacked them with weapons in a fall-out of a road-rage incident in Sholavaram, 30 km from Chennai, on Friday. Avadi City Police arrested all the suspects within hours of the murder.

The deceased, V Dhanush, was a resident of Dheeran Chinnamalai Street in VGP Medu, Athur. Preliminary investigations revealed that a week ago, Dhanush and his brother, Vinoth, were involved in an accident in which a truck hit their two-wheeler.

While the brothers escaped with minor injuries, the two-wheeler was damaged, after which they broke the windscreen. Meanwhile, the truck owner promised the siblings that he would compensate for the damaged two-wheeler. Since the truck owner did not follow up on his promise, the brothers allegedly called him over phone and verbally abused him which triggered the owner to attack them, police said.

On Friday, the owner and his five associates confronted Dhanush and hacked him to death while his friend, Seenu, escaped with injuries. Police moved Dhanush’s body to Stanley Hospital.

Later in the day, police arrested R Kumar (30), V Karthik (26), S Manikandan (34), J Iyappan (30), R Santhosh (18) and M Mohankumar (27). All were produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.