Details surrounding her casting and Meena's characterisation were announced in September 2020 alongside that of two other new characters as part of what Emmerdale described as a "big autumn shake-up".

Her actions included taking Rishi Sharma's (Bhasker Patel) medication so that she could rescue him and pretending to be Ethan Anderson's (Emile John) estranged mother, after which producers hinted that Meena would be at the "forefront of really brilliant and gripping drama".

Her on-screen murders include village locals Leanna Cavanagh (Mimi Slinger), Andrea Tate (Anna Nightingale) and Ben Tucker (Simon Lennon).

[3] Duncan Lindsay of the Metro described Meena as "the most unique and entertaining soap villain ever" and admitted that he wanted her to get away with her crimes due to her strong presence on Emmerdale.

[4] Many viewers praised Meena and accredited her with being most interesting part of Emmerdale, while some have complained about the violence shown in her murderous scenes, with Ofcom receiving hundreds of complaints about her brutality.

Despite criticism, Meena regularly trended on Twitter and her storyline increased Emmerdale's ratings to the point of becoming the most-watched soap opera in the United Kingdom.

[16] The storyline begins with Meena impersonating Ethan Anderson's (Emile John) estranged mother, manipulating his emotions by texting him from a burner phone.

[17] In June 2021, series producer Kate Brooks told the Daily Mirror that Meena's plot will elevate and "captivate" viewers as she joins the "forefront of really brilliant and gripping drama".

[2] Brooks also hinted that her scheming had formed the start of a "gripping and enthralling story" she hoped would get the nation talking and have viewers shouting at their televisions.

That same day, a trailer including Meena, David, Jacob, Leanna, Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham) and Victoria Sugden (Isabel Hodgins) premiered on ITV, with media outlets confirming that the latter five would be the potential victims of her murder.

To further prepare herself for the storyline, she watched films including Taxi Driver, American Psycho, Nightcrawler and Killer Women with Piers Morgan, as well as reading The Psychopath Test.

The plot of the week was confirmed to revolve around an adventure survival challenge that would "set the stage for high-stakes scenes" and give Meena new targets.

[34] Sandhu said that the storylines would be wilder than anything to date and that after reading the scripts for the Christmas episodes, she was surprised that they had managed to make her plot "10 times crazier than [she] could ever have imagined".

[34] Ben Tucker (Simon Lennon) is blamed for the adventure survival challenge going wrong and for Andrea's death, so he begins watching footage from the bodycams to prove his innocence.

[36] Her reveal of the supposed pregnancy leads Billy to see the first signs of her "possessiveness and controlling behaviour", as well as putting difficulty in his plan of getting back with Dawn.

[36] Manpreet begins to suspect Meena of performing evil acts, so arranges to meet Carol Butler (Laura Pitt-Pulford), the sister of Nadine.

It was confirmed that both sisters would survive the explosion, due to photos of Meena keeping Manpreet hostage having been released by producers prior to the scenes.

[39] Meena keeps Manpreet hostage in her bedroom and tells the other villagers that she has moved to Ibiza to recover from the explosion and stay with her daughter, Aiesha Richards (Shila Iqbal).

[46] After Meena kidnaps Dawn, she drives her to a local high bridge and opens the boot of the limo to reveal Billy is inside after drugging him.

Whilst laughing maniacally, a scene then shows Harriet Finch (Katherine Dow Blyton) laying lifeless in a pool of her own blood after being wounded in the head by Meena.

[54] Brooks admitted that the production team were tempted on numerous occasions to keep Meena on the show instead of writing her out, but felt a responsibility to "give people a sense of justice".

[57] After scenes of Meena locking Princess in a hot car aired, it prompted viewer complaints to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

When asked to comment, a spokesperson for the soap stated that Meena's actions were "extremely cruel" and hoped the scenes would act as a reminder to not lock dogs in cars, especially in warm weather.

[66] Despite viewer complaints, Meena's storyline proved to be popular when she was accredited with increasing Emmerdale's ratings to the point where it became the most watched soap opera in the United Kingdom.

[68] Charlotte Rodrigues found the same reaction with fans on Twitter, noting that many of them wanted her to return to kill Al Chapman (Michael Wildman).

[74] After Meena is imprisoned, viewers launched a petition for ITV to commission a spin-off series based around her due to her popularity online and offline.

[78] Lindsay opined that Meena was setting herself up to be "one of soap's all time memorable serial killers" due to her "chilling cold heartedness combined with that fantastic element of silliness".

[4] After Sandhu confirmed that she had begun filming her final scenes, Craig Jones from Leeds Live wrote that her time on Emmerdale would be remenbered for several years to come and felt that she had left a memorable legacy.

They felt that Meena had excelled in comparison to Emmerdale's villains prior to her, writing that she could kill Lachlan White (Thomas Atkinson) "while painting her nails".

[82] He also thought that producers should have kept more details of Meena's murders out of spoiler articles so that viewers could have been more shocked about the scenes and wished that she had killed a big name such as Kim Tate (Claire King) or Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) for "a jaw-dropping moment".