Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin) has been missing from Coronation Street for some time, as he was away in India. He unexpectedly arrived back last week, and straight away he’s in the middle of the drama – with his wedding to Bernie Winter (Jane Hazlegrove) coming up sooner than expected, and for reasons he’s not quite aware of yet.
Dev left his beloved corner shop in the hands of his son Aadi (Adam Hussain) while he was away, and it turns out that the young entrepreneur isn’t going to be winning any businessman of the year awards any time soon.
In fact on his watch the business has run up £12k of debts.
Not wanting to admit to his dad that he made a mess of things, Aadi staged a robbery, getting Brody Michaelis (Ryan Mulvey) to pretend to steal cash from the shop so he could claim on the insurance.
Bernie quickly realised there was something suspicious about this ‘robbery,’ and under pressure Aadi admitted what was going on. For the sake of Aadi’s relationship with Dev and Brody’s with Kit (Jacob Roberts), Bernie agreed not to go to the police.
When Dev, newly arrived back in Weatherfield, hears about the robbery he’s sympathetic and reassures Aadi that the most important thing is that he’s safe. He says he did the right thing by handing the money over and not risking himself by trying any heroics.
Aadi responds that at least the insurance company have confirmed that they’ll cover the loss. Again, eagle-eyed Bernie notices that Aadi looks shifty and she realises he’s not telling the truth. Aadi admits to her that he missed an insurance payment and they aren’t covered for the fake robbery. They won’t get a penny.
Bernie tries to think of a solution to this problem, and a plan neatly presents itself when Dev tells her that one of his aunts is giving the £25k towards their wedding.
After all, Dev doesn’t do weddings on the cheap as anyone who recalls his 2004 wedding to Sunita (Shobna Gulati), when he arrived on a white horse, will know.
Realising this sum would nicely plug the gap that Aadi has created, Bernie makes a suggestion that they should bring the wedding forward.
