An iconic Walford villain has made a shock return from the dead as Nicola and Harry Mitchell’s revenge plot against Ravi Gulati gets underway with what fans predict will be devastating consequences
20:00, 07 Jan 2026Updated 21:17, 07 Jan 2026
EastEnders resurrects iconic villain for revenge plot after dramatic death scene
EastEnders aired the return of an iconic villain to Walford – a shock to many, given he died a year ago. On New Year’s Day 2025, viewers were left on the edge of their seats as the evil Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry), whose crimes included kidnap and murder, was pushed off a balcony by his son Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara).
In the dramatic scene, Nish fell to his death, taking his ex-wife Suki (Balvinder Sopal) with him by grabbing her saree. He had already tried to kill her earlier that night via poison in her glass and when Ravi pushed him, Nish had been planning to jump and kill both himself and his ex. Though Suki survived the fall, Nish did not.
And yet, he has returned to EastEnders. In Wednesday’s episode (7 January), Nicola Mitchell (Laura Doddington) spiked Ravi’s drink. She did it as part of a revenge plot she cooked up with her son Harry (Elijah Holloway) after Ravi seemed to not face any consequences for the part he played in Harry’s false imprisonment and subsequent heroin addiction.
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Nish returned to EastEnders(Image: BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)
A spiked Ravi stumbled out of Nicola’s bar, where Harry then carted him off to The Arches to torment him. But Harry’s revenge plan was interrupted as his uncle Billy (Perry Fenwick) arrived with a takeaway. Left alone, Ravi started to hallucinate.
He then heard a voice that had him screaming into the brick walls around him. Emerging from the shadows is the sound of his dead father Nish. The elder Panesar’s sinister voice says: “There’s no where to hide…”
Fans were delighted to see Navin return as Nish. One wrote on X: “Nish is back to give Ravi a taste of his own medicine, all thanks to Nicola MERCI DIEU!!!” Another added: “That last scene pulled at my heart strings, and was actually a nice surprise to hear nish again.”
A year ago, he died after falling from a balcony(Image: BBC screengrab)
A third said they were worried that Nicola and Harry wouldn’t get away with their scheme but that they were happy Ravi was finally getting his just desserts after weeks of pretending he was innocent in what happened to Harry.
“There are better ways Harry and Nicola could’ve handled this situation so it doesn’t fall back on them granted but it’s about time Ravi got Karma for everything he’s done. He’s never took accountability for anything he has done in the past.”
Some are convinced that Ravi’s hallucination of Nish will lead to devastating consequences for the Panesar/Gulati family. “So I’m thinking then either Ravi attacks someone thinking it’s Nish, or ‘Nish’ goads him into attacking someone,” one fan said. “Given it’s Nish, surely that would limit the potential victim pool.”
Ravi Gulati was left screaming as he heard his father’s voice again(Image: BBC/Jack Barns/Kieron McCarron)
One theory is that he will attack Suki’s wife, Eve Unwin (Heather Peace), as just before Nish died, Ravi defied his father when he refused to kill Eve, leading some to wonder if Ravi will be tracing all his current misfortunes back to that moment.
One fan wrote: “It wouldn’t surprise me if subconsciously Ravi sees his refusal to kill Eve when ordered as the ultimate catalyst for his recent predicaments. If those thoughts are manifesting through his hallucination he might try to redress the balance if he and Eve cross paths.
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