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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Charlotte Tutton

Emmerdale's Manpreet's troubled past: Real name, killer sister and daughter axed

Emmerdale's Manpreet Sharma, played by actress Rebecca Sarker, has had quite an eventful time in the village since her arrival in 2018.

The character arrived as a new love interest for Rishi Sharma, but it later emerged she was hiding some huge secrets.

From a fake identity to an affair scandal, she certainly had a few things she wanted to forget about - but in true soap fashion she had to face her past.

Currently on the show, Manpreet is tipped to be in grave danger as evil Alex Moore attempts to steal from the medical surgery where she works.

With it teased she could be attacked in scenes yet to air, fans are questioning if it might lead to an exit. Here's the biggest moments from Manpreet's time in the village...

Manpreet arrived in the village in 2018 with her daughter Aiesha Richards (ITV)

Daughter axed

Manpreet arrived in the village in 2018 with her daughter Aiesha Richards, played by actress Shila Iqbal.

In 2019 it was confirmed actress Shila had been sacked by Emmerdale over historical offensive tweets.

Her character Aiesha was written out of the show quickly, and she left the village offscreen - with it later revealed she was in Ibiza. She is often mentioned on the show but has never returned.

Affair scandal

Manpreet's first big secret was revealed in 2020, when her secret sister Meena Jutla arrived and revealed they were estranged.

It emerged Manpreet had been married to a man named Dennis, and that she was left heartbroken when he and Meena slept together.

The fling caused a rift between the sisters and Manpreet left, while Meena claimed she did it to get Manpreet away from her husband.

Secret identity

Charles soon revealed he had believed Manpreet was dead for years (ITV)

Another big twist came in early 2021 just weeks after the arrival of new vicar Charles Anderson.

When the pair laid eyes on each other in the village it was clear they knew each other and shared a past.

Charles soon revealed he had believed Manpreet was dead for years, and that they had been in a relationship together - while she was still married to Dennis.

The biggest shock came when Charles revealed her name was Saira, or so he thought, and they were due to get married before she vanished on their wedding day.

Manpreet was living a double life, and while Manpreet was her real name she pretended to be Saira, hiding the fact she had a marriage and a family before deciding to ditch Charles.

Serial killer sister Meena

Manpreet faced grave danger when she learned that her sister Meena was a killer (ITV)

Manpreet faced grave danger when she learned that her sister Meena was a killer, and Meena turned on her.

Killer Meena is currently behind bars after killing Ben Tucker, Andrea Tate and Leanna Cavanagh, as well as someone called Nadine from her past.

Manpreet was held captive for weeks after uncovering her sister's killer actions, but eventually she was saved and Meena was caught.

Meena also tried to kill Liam Cavanagh, Harriet Finch, Victoria Sugden, Leyla Harding and Vinny Dingle, while she also plotted the deaths of Billy Fletcher and Dawn Taylor.

One final murder confession came during her trial, that revealed she'd shockingly killed their father too.

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.

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