MUMBAI, July 17 -- The crime branch has rescued a man who was kidnapped by a gang and illegally confined in Uttar Pradesh's Banda district for a month for failing to manufacture and supply Mephedrone or MD, a synthetic drug, to them. A few of the seven accused persons were arrested from Banda and the remaining from the city and Raigad district. Investigation revealed that the accused had allegedly paid Rs.50 lakh to victim Sajid Electricwala in advance but neither received the contraband nor his money. According to the police, some of the arrested accused are notorious criminals and suspected to have connections with Chhota Shakeel, the henchman of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim. They were identified as Sarwar Khan, Yunush Tewarpal, Mehtab Ali, Santosh Waghmare, Rahul Sawant, Satish Kadu, and Taufeeque Sandy. Except for Kadu, all had criminal records. According to the police, Electricwala, who was arrested in 2015 by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad for manufacturing mephedrone, befriended Khan during his time in jail. After the conflict with Khan over the MD deal, he was summoned to Mumbai from his native Baroda, and arrived in the city on June 12. "He put up at Hotel Ali Baba in Oshiwara," said an officer. "His friend, Shabbir Siddique, who is a real estate agent, was also there." On June 13, Khan, Tewarpal, Ali and Sandy, went to meet Electricwala. On the pretext of taking them out to lunch, Electricwala and Siddique were made to sit in a car and driven to Neral. "They were kept in a guesthouse, where Waghmare, Sawant and Kadu came. The victims were then beaten up," said the officer. Two days later, Siddique somehow managed to make his escape through a broken window grill. Wary that he would go to the police, the kidnappers left the guesthouse and proceeded to Nashik with Electricwala. The accused then began making calls to Electricwala's wife in Baroda and demanded the Rs.50 lakh back. The family returned the money in instalments in a few days but they did not release him. "They went to Banda and confined Electricwala to a guesthouse, where they constantly assaulted him, and also began demanding Rs.3 crore more from his family," said a police officer. The frightened family members did not register a missing complaint with the police. But when Siddique realised that the demands of the accused were increasing, he went to the crime branch on July 10. "Six police teams were formed to trace the victim," said DCP Raj Tilak Roshan. "They located the accused in UP and, with help from local police, arrested five of the accused and rescued Electricwala on July 15. The two remaining accused, Waghmare and Kadu, were arrested from Neral." The police brought the accused and victim to Mumbai on Tuesday....