Sunita Alahan

Sunita Alahan (née Parekh), was an employee at Dev Alahan's Swinton branch, she fled when she found she was being forced into an arranged marriage in Mumbai, India with Deepak, the son of family friends. Sunita sought help from Dev, who sheltered her in the Corner Shop flat until the date of her flight had passed. When her parents found out they were furious, and her domineering mother Mena made it a choice - an arranged marriage with her family's blessing, or defy her family and never see them again. Sunita chose to determine her own future.

Dev offered Sunita a job in his Coronation Street shop with accommodation thrown in, freeing Deirdre Rachid up to become a troubleshooter for all Dev's empire.

In 2003, Sunita started dating Peter Barlow's navy mate Ciaran McCarthy but he was taken to prison for being absent from the navy without permission. He returned after a few months just as Dev was finally beginning to return Sunita's affections. Ciaran moved in on her and managed to win her back. At Peter's wedding to Shelly Unwin, Ciaran asked Sunita to marry him and they set a date for 29th December and planned to marry at the registry office. Ciaran really didn't want to get married but couldn't find a way to tell Sunita. At his stag do, he thumped rival Dev hoping to be put in jail but Dev didn't press charges. Tracy Barlow told Sunita anyway, and told her that Dev didn't want to get married. Ciaran said he did but at the registry office Sunita knew down deep he didn't want to and called off the wedding.

In 2004, Sunita went out with Danny Baldwin but she found out he was married to Frankie, so Sunita dumped him. In July, Dev found out that something was wrong with Sunita. When she collapsed on the shop floor, Dev took her to the doctors and he told her that she had an aneurism and a brain tumour. Later Maya Sharma, Dev’s girlfriend, began to suspect something was wrong, so she took Sunita’s flat key to see what she could find in the bathroom. She found a pregnancy kit. Then when Dev and Sunita were in the flat, Maya let herself in and saw them hugging each other. Maya thought Sunita was pregnant, but Dev told Maya that Sunita had an aneurism and a brain tumour.

In August, Dev told Sunita that he still loved her and when he told Maya she left him then came to Dev’s flat to get her things but before leaving she trashed his flat. Sunita had to go to hospital to have an operation to get rid of the aneurism and the brain tumour, but Maya came back she tried to get Dev done for sexual harrassment by getting Leanne Battersby to try and bed him. Leanne took Dev to court and asked Maya to help her, but Leanne and Maya lost the case.

In October, Dev and Sunita were going to get married but Maya broke in to the shop flat and got hold of Sunita’s birth certificate and married seven illegal immigrants in Sunita’s name to try and stop them from getting married. Sunita was arrested and sent to prison, but Dev managed to sort out the mess and Maya was arrested, but she was released on bail. Maya went around burning all of Dev’s shops and took Sunita hostage in the Coronation Street shop flat and set fire to it with Dev and Sunita in the flat. They were both saved but Maya saw all and tried to run both of them down with her car. A truck crashed into the back of her car and Maya was sent to hospital. Sunita recovered from her ordeal and she and Dev settled down to married life which went pretty smoothly for a while. Sunita discovered she was pregnant with twins and they were overjoyed. She had recently fallen out with best friend Shelley because Shelley's boyfriend Charlie Stubbs was controlling and isolating Shelley but shortly after Shelley dumped Charlie, she and Sunita made up. Shelley was looking forward to being a surrogate Auntie to the babies. Sunita's world came down around her when she discovered that Dev had several children by several different women whom he had housed and given jobs at his various shops. She was devastated and left Dev. Dev was with her when the twins, a boy, Aadi and a girl, Asha were born, but Sunita didn't know if she could ever trust him again.