in october 1997, she leaves with her mother to stay with relatives. they are due to return in january 1998, but sanjay is late to collect them from the station. when he arrives gita is nowhere to be seen. when there was no sign of gita or sharmilla days later, sanjay contacts the police. months later, they are still missing and coincidental evidence has led the police to think that sanjay may have been responsible for their disappearance. he is even arrested and accused of murder, although he is later released without charge. everyone assumes that gita and sharmilla are dead. but in july 1998 sanjay finds gita in birmingham with a new baby boy, arjun, conceived during a one-night stand. he takes his family home, vowing to raise arjun as his own. sanjay and gita are happy until local reporter polly becker (victoria gould) discovers their recent scandal and gets it published in the "walford gazette". suddenly all of walford know what had transpired in gita's absence. reporters make their lives miserable and sharmilla is even bullied at school, so they finally decide to leave walford. sharmilla's last appearance is in september 1998.