Sanjay comes to the Square to ask his friend, Richard Cole (Ian Reddington), to give him a permanent pitch on the market that he runs.

Sanjay was a compulsive gambler, and he gambles away the deposit for a flat they intended to buy, so Gita is forced to move in with Richard.

She ends up giving birth to a girl, Sharmilla (Priya Bilkhu), with Richard holding her hand through the ordeal.

Feeling embarrassed by her outburst, Gita decides she needed a break from Walford, so at the end of the year she leaves Sharmilla in Sanjay's care and goes to stay with a relative.

She then sets about trying to get revenge by refusing Sanjay access to both the market stall and Sharmilla, informing Meena's husband, Jerry, about the affair.

Eventually he catches a bunch of yobs in the act and is just shoving one to the ground when a police car pulls up and Sanjay is arrested.

She is soon approached by smooth talking businessman, Guppy Sharma (Lyndam Gregory), and after many dinner dates (allegedly to discuss business), Gita becomes close to him.

When Gita fails to conceive, they consult doctors, and Sanjay is diagnosed with a low sperm count.

In January 1998 Gita and Sharmilla are due to arrive home, but Sanjay is late to meet them at the train station.

Sanjay had planned to collect them from the station, but after getting involved in yet another dodgy business deal, he was late for their rendezvous.

Months pass but there is still no word from Gita and evidence leads the police to think that Sanjay may have been responsible for her disappearance.

However, in July that year, Gita contacts her friend, Ruth Fowler (Caroline Paterson), and tells her that she is living in Birmingham and is in desperate need of some money.

The family are happy for a short while, until the local reporter, Polly Becker (Victoria Gould), discovers their recent scandal.

Over 25 years later, Gita is mentioned in conversation by her former best friend Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) to her partner Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) when she claims that she has been in touch with Gita and they are meeting up; however, this is a cover as Cindy is continuing the next episode of her affair with Junior Knight (Micah Balfour).

Gita played by Shobu Kapoor and her husband Sanjay (Deepak Verma) were introduced early in 1993 by producer Leonard Lewis.

It was reported that Robinson hoped the changes would attract more viewers and "spice up [the soap's fictional setting of] Walford".

[5] In 2020, Sara Wallis and Ian Hyland from The Daily Mirror placed Gita 75th on their ranked list of the best EastEnders characters of all time, writing that she had an "explosive temper" and calling her marriage to Sanjay "rocky", and said that her big stories included her postnatal depression and racist attacks.