A bouncer was allegedly beaten up by seven to eight drunken youths outside PVR Saket (Anupam cinema) in South district in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity.

The police said the incident had occurred on Thursday night when the victim, Vijay Kumar, was roaming outside PVR Saket. Police sources said the assailants had come to beat someone else but mistook Kumar for him. “Trouble started when a few youths were roaming outside the mall in an inebriated condition and creating a ruckus. A car-owner slapped one of them,” police sources said. “The person who was slapped went to call his friends, while the car owner escaped from the spot.”

The police said that these youths mistook Kumar for the car owner and ambushed him.

Kumar, in his statement to the police, has said that he was outside the PVR when these men came and attacked him from behind. “Before I could realise what was happening, the youths started hitting me. I was taken by surprise,” Kumar told the police in his statement.

By the time the police got a call, the miscreants had fled the spot. Later, it was found that all of them were from a nearby locality, Hauz Rani, and were roaming around PVR Saket for quite sometime before the incident occurred.

Kumar hails from Fatehpur Beri, a village near Mehrauli, and works as a bouncer in a Saket mall. Police sources said that he was admitted to hospital soon after the incident and is still recuperating.

A day after the incident, the police have managed to arrest one of the accused, identified as Raees Mohammed, whereas a search for his associates, who are absconding since the incident, is on. A case has been registered with the Saket police station.