Hill leaders Ajoy Edwards and Anit Thapa are at loggerheads over an alleged water corruption issue, with Edwards filing a Rs 60 lakh defamation case against Thapa.

Thapa, the chief executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), heads the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM). Edwards, an elected GTA Sabha member, heads the Hamro Party, the main Opposition in the GTA.

Sources said Edwards’s lawyers filed a defamation suit against Thapa at the court of the civil judge (senior division) in Darjeeling on Tuesday.

“Thapa in one of his public speeches on March 28 made a slanderous proclamation that Edwards took a commission of Rs 30 lakh from the Neura water project,” said a source.

Thapa also alleged that owing to Edwards's “deceitful" act, some of Hamro Party’s Darjeeling councillors had defected to the BGPM, the source added.

So far, seven Hamro Party councillors defected to the BGPM, which helped the latter topple the former's civic board.

A Hamro Party source said Edwards served a notice to Thapa on April 5 seeking an unconditional apology within 15 days, which Thapa apparently ignored.

Charges and counter-charges of corruption, which involve commission in water projects, have gripped the hills in recent times.

Edwards had earlier alleged that Thapa sought a 7 per cent commission from contractors executing the water supply projects of Rs 1,500 crore under the Jal Jeevan Mission.

Sharing a screenshot of WhatsApp texts allegedly shared between Thapa and Mirik contractor Pukar Tamang, Edwards wrote on his verified Facebook page: “Anit Thapa had asked a Mirik contractor who had successfully bid for a water project for 7% upfront commission money. When the contractor told him that he could not execute a good job for the people by giving bribe, he asked him to withdraw from the tender of Jal Jeevan Mission.....”

The screenshot did not have the alleged demand for 7 per cent commission but Hamro Party leaders said Thapa had deleted that text.