The Gangs of Khanpur

If the Gangs of Wasseypur focused on power and vengeance in coal-rich Dhanbad, the Gangs of Khanpur epitomise the politics of power and vengeance in cash-rich Haridwar. Former MLA and BJP leader Kunwar Pranav Singh ‘Champion’ lost his family’s pocket borough of Khanpur in the 2022 assembly election to Umesh Kumar, CEO of Samachar Plus, a local news channel. Khanpur falls in Haridwar district and Champion had been winning this election ever since the state of Uttarakhand was formed in 2000. Kumar had contested the 2022 election as an Independent. The two bitter rivals have been engaged in verbal attacks and counterattacks which recently culminated in Champion accusing Umesh Kumar of being an ‘illegitimate’ son.

Umesh Kumar and his supporters retaliated on 25 January by shouting slogans against Champion outside his office.

Unwilling to take this lying down, Champion retaliated by taking a group of over two dozen armed supporters to Kumar’s office-cum-residence where, in a gang war style shootout, over 200 rounds of firing took place. Video footage showed a turban-clad Champion holding a rifle in one hand and a revolver in the other while walking around the premises screaming expletives at the MLA while his supporters threw stones at Umesh Kumar’s office-cum-residence. Not to lose face, and not to be outdone, after Champion and his hoods had left, Umesh Kumar picked up a revolver and arrived at Rang Mahal, his rival’s residence in Dehradun, swearing he would shoot him down.

Before matters could get any worse, he was stopped by some bystanders and handed over to the police. What happened over the Republic Day weekend is symptomatic of the criminal tendencies of many politicians in Uttarakhand today.

Umesh Kumar’s record is dubious to say the least. Facing rape charges, he left western Uttar Pradesh and landed up in Uttarakhand when the state was first formed. Claiming to be a journalist, he soon ingratiated himself with former chief minister N.D. Tiwari who even granted him an armed police escort.

Accused of being involved in several land-grab cases, Kumar is reported to have entered into an agreement with the owners of Pan Parag to launch Samachar Plus. (Records confirm that Umesh signed an agreement with DS Group which owns Pan Parag.) There have been accusations of Umesh having blackmailed former chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ who had issued orders for his arrest. Being close to former chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Kumar was let off. This was not the only case where he was accused of blackmail. He tried blackmailing a subsequent chief minister, Trivendra Singh Rawat, who had his channel shut down and ordered the police to expel him from the state for six months. Kumar is also known to have conducted sting operations on several bureaucrats including additional chief secretary Om Prakash.

His most prominent sting operation was on former chief minister Harish Rawat in 2016. Rawat was reportedly caught on camera telling his supporters that he was willing to overlook all “crimes of omission and commission” committed by his former colleagues—led by Vijay Bahuguna and Satpal Maharaj—if they agreed to return to the Congress and support his government. (This was when seven senior state Congress leaders had migrated to the BJP.) It was this sting operation that gave Umesh Kumar an opportunity to get close to Amit Shah, who was then BJP president.

Champion has an equally infamous record. He claims to be a scion of the erstwhile state of Landhaura.

After winning the first assembly election on a Congress ticket, he was seen moving around Dehradun with an armed escort. He moved to the BJP along with Vijay Bahuguna and Satpal Maharaj.

A notorious character, Champion challenged another BJP MLA, Deshraj Karanwal from Jhabreda assembly, to a duel and warned him that when they met face to face, one slap would leave him “bleeding to death”. If that wasn’t mortifying enough for the BJP, a video recording surfaced of Champion holding three revolvers and dancing to the tune of ‘Tamanche pe disco...’. The BJP responded to this episode by suspending him for six years. (His wife Devyani Singh stood for election on a BJP ticket, and lost—a defeat that Champion took as a personal affront.) One year later, however, the party revoked the suspension after Champion put in writing his solemn pledge not to indulge in any undisciplined behaviour in future.

Meanwhile, the wily Umesh Kumar kept his head down and focused on winning over his constituents by showering money like confetti on getting roads repaired, having tube wells dug and ensuring water connections for the villagers. The Uttarakhand police seem to have been caught unawares by the ‘shootout at the Umesh Kumar corral’. SSP Haridwar Parmender Dobhal made a public statement about checking to see if the guns being carried by Champion’s entourage are licensed or not.

Kumar’s neighbours on Mohini Road in Dehradun wonder why these licenses were not checked earlier. As one of them said, “His offensive behaviour is known to all, everyone is terrified of him as he goes around with an armed escort. Why were the police sleeping?”

Uttarakhand Congress spokesperson Garima Dasauni pointed out, “The state has descended into jungle raj. There is no law and order left. The fracas between the two went on for 48 hours. Why did the police not intervene earlier? While Umesh Kumar has been let out on bail, this so-called Champion is in remand for a fortnight.” Both leaders are known to enjoy the patronage of chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Both called for mahapanchayats— Champion for a Gujjar mahapanchayat on 29 January despite being in jail (which was deferred), and Umesh Kumar for a Brahmin mahapanchayat on 31 January.

Resorting to mahapanchayats seems to have become a common practice in the state. In November 2024, the Uttarakhand High Court had ordered that no mahapanchayat was to be held by the Hindutva brigade in Uttarkashi to protest the stay on the demolition of a mosque built legally on private land. In flagrant violation of the law, the mahapanchayat was held anyway, with the police standing by. Congress spokesperson Sheeshpal Singh Bisht said that the region had lapsed into utter lawlessness—“In Khanpur, both former and current MLAs are openly engaging in verbal abuse, roaming with their gangs, brandishing deadly weapons and threatening each other. Videos of these incidents are being widely circulated on social media, while the police remain silent spectators.”