Cheating by House Contractor
We planned to build a house and for that we made aggrement on a Rs 100 stamp paper with a labour plus material contractor. In Feb 2024 we paid Rs 10 lakhs online as advance to him to start the work. The contractor did only 5% work in the last 3 months and now he is saying he will not continue the project. I asked him to settle the money as per the work done uptil now. He has given me bill of 3.5 lakhs whereas he has not even done work of 2 lakhs. Moreover for the balance 6.5 lakhs he has given post dated cheque against it.
Now he is not even picking my calls and later after seeing his bank account statement which was submitted in municipal corporation for plan passing, I got to know that he has given my 10 lakhs paid to him for construction to 5-6 people in the form of cheque to settle his previous debts/liabilities. So he had no money left to complete my house project. Now I have not received single rupee from him till now, but I have resumed house construction work myself so that I can atleast complete one slab before rainy season begins.
Can I file IPC 420 and 406 against him now and later file for Sec 138 of NI act in case of cheque bounce. How to proceed in this case so as to recover my money quickly. Pls enlighten. Thank you.