The Uttarakhand Police on Sunday arrested Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former legislator Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion for allegedly firing at Khanpur MLA Umesh Kumar’s home in Roorkee, Haridwar, reported The Indian Express.

The incident occurred earlier in the day in front of Kumar’s home, said Senior Superintendent of Police (Haridwar) Parmender Dobhal. Kumar is an Independent legislator from Khanpur, a seat that was held by Champion previously as a Congress member and then as a BJP legislator.

Champion was arrested after a video of the incident was widely circulated on social media. In the video, the BJP leader and his aides could be seen shooting at Kumar’s home several times. They were also seen throwing stones at his home.

“We were informed through a clip on social media as well as by the local police station that the former MLA [Champion] had fired at the house of the MLA [Kumar],” The Indian Express quoted Dobhal as saying.

“We have arrested the former MLA and his aides,” he said. “We will take strict action against the offenders.” Cross-first information reports had been filed after complaints were lodged by both Champion and Kumar, Dobhal added.

After the incident came to light, BJP state president Mahendra Bhatt said that no one had the right to take the law into their own hands. “These kinds of acts should be stopped,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying. “Anyone who creates such an environment should be punished.”

Congress leader Sheeshpal Singh Bisht claimed that the state had turned into a battlefield.

“The Congress has consistently pointed out the lack of law and order in Uttarakhand,” Bisht said. “In Khanpur, the former and current MLAs are openly engaging in verbal abuse, brandishing deadly weapons with their gangs, and threatening each other. Videos of these incidents are being widely circulated on social media, while the police remain mere spectators.”

In July 2019, the BJP expelled Champion from the party for six years after a video of him dancing while brandishing guns was widely shared on social media. He had already been suspended by the party for three months on disciplinary grounds after he allegedly misbehaved with journalists a month earlier.

However, the Hindutva party revoked his expulsion a year later after he signed an undertaking that he would not indulge in any act of indiscipline in the future, The Indian Express reported.

In the 2022 Assembly elections in the state, the BJP had given a ticket to Champion’s wife Kunwarni Devyani from the Khanpur seat. She lost to Kumar.

Champion was earlier with the Congress. He, along with eight other legislators, switched to the BJP after they revolted against then-Chief Minister Harish Rawat in 2016.