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Character Profiles > Ajay Kapoor Sachin Joab

Ajay Kapoor 2011, 2012-2013
Lived: 24 Ramsay Street, Kapoor house
Marital Status: Priya Kapoor
Children: Rani
Occupation: Councillor, Lawyer

Local councillor and loyal family man, Ajay Kapoor first encountered the people of Ramsay Street when the council decided to sell off the area's community gardens, with Sonya Mitchell ultimately buying them and turning them into her own nursery. A few weeks later, Sonya's partner, lawyer Toadie Rebecchi, having just been hired by city law firm Simmons & Colbert, was forced to interrupt Ajay's anniversary dinner at Lassiter's with wife Priya. Toadie needed Ajay to sign some papers to help push through planning permission for a new shopping centre, with Ajay reluctantly agreeing to look at the papers later on, after Toadie bought the happy couple a bottle of champagne.

When the shopping centre plans caused controversy in the area, Ajay found himself caught up in a scandal when it was implied that he'd taken a bribe to agree to the planning, though Toadie insisted that the bottle of champagne had simply been an anniversary gift. Erinsborough News editor Paul Robinson, however, was desperate to get the shopping centre plans stopped and tried to get proof that something illegal was going on, even asking his cleaner Lorraine Dowski - who also cleaned for the Kapoors - to go through his home office and photograph documents. Lorraine immediately told Ajay, who went to Paul and warned him to stop playing games. Meanwhile, Priya became the acting principal of Erinsborough High and Paul, unaware that she was Ajay's wife, befriended her, taking every opportunity to insult Ajay. At the opening of Erinsborough's new history wall, Paul was upset to realise that Priya was married to Councillor Kapoor, and soon found that he'd made an enemy of both husband and wife.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that Toadie's boss at Simmons & Colbert, Peter Noonan, was corrupt and had been intimidating local businesses into selling to the Hamilton Group, as his wife was one of the company's shareholders. After Noonan was arrested, Ajay told Paul that the council had severed all ties with the Hamilton Group, and their shopping centre construction plans had been cancelled.

Ajay and Paul were soon at loggerheads again when plans were announced to merge Erinsborough police station with West Waratah, creating a larger regional police force and turning the old station into a new community centre. As Paul's niece Sophie and Ajay's daughter Rani were friends, Paul and Ajay's paths crossed again, and, having learnt that Ajay was campaigning for re-election, Paul offered him the use of the Erinsborough News to help with the campaign. After discussing it with Priya, who was adamant that Paul never did anything without personal gain, Ajay turned the offer down, and suddenly found the newspaper waging a war against his plan to close Erinsborough police station. Determined not to be beaten, Ajay arranged a barbecue outside the station, where he made it clear to the locals that he had the interests of the community at heart. Paul realised that he'd met his match, and then found himself unable to say no when Ajay asked to take over the lease of the empty unit at Lassiter's, to open his legal firm. He soon found his first case when asked to represent Lucas Fitzgerald, a local mechanic who was being accused of torching Michael Williams' car - as revenge for Michael stealing his girlfriend Emilia. Ajay had only just had a chance to question Lucas and Michael, though, when Michael stepped forward and claimed that it had been an accident, when actually he was covering for his daughter Tash.

With Ajay proving popular with the locals, Paul was determined to bring him down a peg or two, asking employee Susan Kennedy to write a negative article about Ajay and his community centre plans. But when Ajay caught Susan researching him, he offered to give her a much better story and gave her a guided tour of the new centre, with Susan deciding to write about that instead - leaving Paul furious. Things got worse as Paul decided to exact his revenge - when he heard that neighbour Tash Williams was having a house party, Paul set up a fake Facebook account and posted an invite, allowing the party to get completely out of control before he contacted the police. Paul was hopeful that this would prove the need for a local police station, but it backfired when Susan found out that Paul was behind the Facebook message and exposed him in the newspaper. Paul was forced to step down as newspaper editor, whilst Ajay triumphantly opened the community centre.

Ajay also began to find further reasons to spend time in Ramsay Street, as he became concerned about Rani's blossoming friendship with Callum Jones, he also joined The Right Prescription, a band set up by Susan's ex-husband Karl. Karl, and the other band member, his colleague Dr Adrian Pearce, had been looking for a drummer, and Karl was impressed when he heard Ajay play at the community centre opening. Ajay soon found himself continually at loggerheads with Karl over song choices and booking gigs and, despite a successful launch at Charlie's bar, the creative differences continued, until Adrian decided to quit the band, leaving Ajay and Karl as a twosome. After a few gigs with Sophie as their bass player, and an unsuccessful attempt to find someone else, Ajay and Karl decided that they would continue with just the two of them.

Meanwhile, Ajay found himself caught up in Toadie's personal life again when he started representing Troy Miller in a joint custody case. Troy was the natural father of Toadie's adopted son Callum but, as he'd been abusive to Sonya in the past, they wanted nothing to do with him. When Troy bought 32 Ramsay Street and moved in next-door to Toadie, then provoked Toadie into punching him and got a restraining order, the case seemed to be going Troy's way. When Troy suddenly dropped the case, however, Ajay was glad to have an excuse to stop representing him. And when Troy had a fall at home and was taken to hospital, he called Ajay and asked to re-open the case, but Ajay was happy to tell him that he wanted nothing to do with it. When Troy died from his head injuries later that day, Ajay admitted that he felt guilty about that last meeting between them.

Whilst filming a promotional video for the band, Ajay declined a phone call from the mayor, calling him an old windbag, only for the footage to end up in Paul Robinson's hands and, before long, it was up on the Erinsborough News website. The footage seriously jeopardised Ajay's attempts to be re-elected to the local council and, upset at his loss, he made a sudden decision to buy 24 Ramsay Street when it went up for auction. Already upset at being left out of her husband's plans for national government, Priya was horrified at him buying a house she hadn't even been inside and, even worse, next-door to Paul. After a minor dispute with Paul over land boundaries, the Kapoors moved in and Ajay insisted in throwing a housewarming barbecue, before the boxes were even unpacked. Though uptight Priya wasn't sure about this, she slowly began to warm to her new surroundings, and neighbours, and admitted to Ajay that they might actually be happy there - though he'd already fallen asleep and missed her speech.

Frustrated with his lack of clients at work, Ajay was thinking about making a change, and when Toadie mentioned that there was a job vacancy coming up at Simmons & Colbert, the city law firm where he worked, Ajay decided to apply and met with Toadie's boss, Charlotte. Charlotte was planning to advance her career, meaning the job as Toadie's senior would be up for grabs - Toadie had hoped that he could fill her role, and that Ajay could take his old position in the firm. But after interviewing Ajay, Charlotte decided to offer him her old job, causing tension between Ajay and his friend and new neighbour, which only increased when Ajay accidentally broke Toadie's car windscreen during a friendly game of cricket. At work, the problems continued as a resentful Toadie allowed Ajay to approach a colleague's wife, wrongly believing that she was pregnant, and offend her about her weight. When Ajay realised that Toadie had known what he was doing, he laughed it off, but warned Toadie that he wouldn't put up with his games again.

As things improved at work, Ajay was unaware of the problems it was causing at home, as Priya was feeling more and more isolated from her husband and daughter, and was being tempted into an affair by a persistent Paul Robinson. As Priya began an affair with Paul, Ajay saw her strange moods as being annoyed with him for spending so much time at work. When his dream opportunity of a place at a law conference in Singapore came up, he happily accepted, but had second thoughts as it would mean a week away from home, and gave it up to Toadie. Believing Priya was working late and spending time listening to all of Susan's problems, a sympathetic Ajay started lavishing her with attention and cooking dinner for her every night, little realising that he was only adding to her feelings of guilt. As Priya's stress began to show, Ajay decided to speak to Susan about the amount of time she was spending with Priya, explaining that his wife was struggling to cope with everything at the moment, and unaware that Susan knew that Priya was having an affair. Priya realised that something had to change, and tried to end things with Paul, throwing herself into organising the Diwali celebrations for the family. Happy that things seemed to be back on track, Ajay arranged a special surprise for his and Priya's anniversary, hiding gifts for her around the Lassiter's complex but not realising that, as she was helping him, Rani had spotted her mum and Paul hugging.

With Rani becomingly increasingly distant, matters came to a head when Rani tried to sneak away to a party in Frankston with Harley. A frantic Ajay tracked her down before they could be collected by Harley's mates - he was sent back home to his mum, while an upset Rani told her dad that Priya had been cheating on him with Paul Robinson. Ajay refused to believe her, thinking she was simply lashing out and making up lies, but when Priya got home, she was forced to admit that it was true and that she'd been sleeping with Paul for weeks, though the affair was over now. She tried to tell Ajay about how unhappy she'd been, but he threw her out of the house, unable to believe what he was hearing. As Rani cut herself off from her dad, he struggled to know what to do for the best, but Karl encouraged him to attend a Christmas gig at the community centre, and Ajay reluctantly agreed, happy when Rani arrived to watch him. When Rani then tried to act like her mum no longer existed, and even ripped up her post and cut up her clothes, Ajay realised that it was not a healthy situation, so he asked Priya to return home, though she would have to sleep in the spare bedroom. As Priya moved back in, Rani made little effort to welcome her, listening only to her father and making it clear that Priya's efforts of cooking meals and watching Bollywood movies together would never make up for what she'd done.

Ajay's stress at home soon extended to work when he offered to represent a man, Tony Corvus, going through a divorce from his wife, Sheree. As the meeting went on, Ajay became increasingly annoyed with Tony's unapologetic view of his affair and the effect it had on his wife and children, and eventually snapped and walked out, wishing Sheree good luck in the proceedings. When Charlotte eventually tracked Ajay down, having heard from Priya about the Kapoors' marital problems, she was sympathetic, but Ajay had already decided that he no longer wanted to work as a corporate lawyer and offered his resignation. As Rani returned to school, her anger towards her mum only increased, and she ended up posting some hurtful remarks on her Facebook page, and refused to go to a school assembly, leading to her receiving detention. Though Ajay took Rani to the school to make sure she went to her detentions, he continued to make it clear to Priya that he was only doing it for Rani's sake, and his feelings for his wife hadn't changed. Looking for a new way to fill his time, Ajay took up his old sport of karate, finding an outlet for a lot of the aggression he was feeling. It was during a training session at the community centre that a woman named Phillipa approached him, mentioning how she was struggling to keep up. In no frame of mind to be meeting anyone new, Ajay quickly left and, when he ran into her again at Charlie's, his problems had only increased, with Priya wanting him to attend family counselling, and a Facebook group about the Kapoors causing a stir in the neighbourhood. After chatting to Philippa, Ajay was ready to go home alone, but after spotting Paul in the bar, he decided to go with Philippa and Paul was quick to report this back to Priya. The Kapoors suffered through another huge argument, and although he and Philippa had just talked all night, he allowed Priya to think, until a few days later, that more had gone on, and made it clear that he wasn't sure that he could ever forgive her.

Things took a more positive turn for the Kapoor marriage when Ajay learnt that Priya had been suffering from harassment, by a series of lewd text messages, and was determined to support her. After attending a counselling session together, Ajay began to realise how worthless he'd been making his wife feel when he made important decisions without her, such as the purchase of their house on Ramsay Street. And when it was revealed that school board member Brian O'Loughlin had been behind the text messages, Ajay stood by Priya, informing the police and helping her to deal with the matter. Things for Priya only got worse, however, as O'Loughlin filed a complaint against her, claiming that she'd been the one harassing him, and getting her suspended from her job, with an earlier spiteful complaint from Paul, about Priya's poor running of the school, only serving to speed up her suspension. Although her career seemed to be in serious trouble, the whole incident brought Priya and Ajay closer and he told her that he loved her and would be there for her, and after months of frostiness, the pair shared a kiss. As Ajay and Priya seemed to be getting their marriage back on track, though Ajay wasn't quite ready to share a bed with her again, news came through that Priya had been sacked. Ajay agreed to start looking for legal work again, telling Priya that he would support the family as she fought to win back her reputation. In a last desperate attempt to clear her name, Priya met with Brian O'Loughlin, who agreed that he would confess everything to the school board, if she agreed to spend a night with him.

Knowing how Ajay would react, Priya managed to avoid telling him, instead getting help from Susan, who blackmailed Brian, claiming that she knew of his harassment towards female employees at his company and would be publishing a newspaper article to expose him. Brian fell for it, and resigned from the school board, admitting that he'd been the one harassing Priya, and not the other way around. Ajay, unaware of the full details, was delighted as Priya got her job back and it seemed that things for the Kapoors couldn't be better. Sadly, tragedy was just around the corner, when a gas explosion ripped through the marquee where Toadie and Sonya's wedding reception had been taking place. Almost all of the guests had been outside at the time, but Priya had been in there, trying to text Rani and ask her to come back to the wedding, after mother and daughter had argued about the dress Priya had bought Rani for the occasion. After a tense wait at the hospital, Ajay and Rani were told that Priya's brain had been starved of oxygen for too long and that she wasn't going to wake up, and they were forced to say a difficult goodbye.

After Priya's funeral, a tree was planted near the community centre, in her memory, and Ajay began to focus his efforts on getting justice for her and Rhys, who had also been killed. Ajay teamed up with Rhys's mum, Elaine and launched a class action suit against Paul and the hotel, warning Paul that he was going to take every penny he had. Meanwhile, he was pleased that Rani seemed to be coping, and became offended when Susan pointed out that Rani really shouldn't be coping so well, so soon after losing her mum. Ajay insisted that he was capable of parenting his own daughter, but started to grow concerned when she failed to mention to him a memorial service for Priya that had been held at the school. When Elaine accepted a settlement from Paul and moved away from the area, Ajay continued with his quest to get justice for his late wife, but was surprised when Callum came to see him and mentioned that Rani had been involved in a run-in at school with Brian O'Loughlin's son Alistair. Rani had told Alistair that Priya wasn't really gone, and later, when his daughter came home, Ajay suggested that they should give her mum's clothes to charity, Rani shouted at him. He later got her to open up about her feelings of guilt, as the last thing she'd said to her mum was 'I hate you', and Ajay had to assure Rani that Priya knew how much her daughter loved her. Although pleased that Rani had finally opened up to him, Ajay was unaware that Rani had been seeing visions of her dead mum, talking to her and trying to get some kind of reassurance from her.

Ajay was forced to drop the class action suit against Paul when it was revealed that the gas bottle had been faulty, and as he launched a new case against the company who'd made the bottles, he also continued his efforts to help Rani to move on. When student teacher Kate, who'd also lost her mum at a young age, offered to chat to Rani, she thought that helping to clear out Priya's office at the school might be a good form of therapy, as Ajay was reluctant to send his daughter to see a psychologist. When Rani found a journal belonging to her mum, Kate encouraged her to take it and read it, as it might help her to understand her mum a bit better. Ajay was horrified when he found out what Kate had done, as the journal had been written by Priya after her counselling sessions, and contained a lot of personal thoughts about her marriage and affair with Paul. Rushing home, Ajay found that Rani had already read the diary and after seeing her mum's words about how much she loved her daughter, it finally allowed Rani to move on and say goodbye to the visions of her mum that she'd been seeing.

With Rani back to her old self, Ajay focused on making a fresh start in his professional life too, and after spotting that his old office at Lassiter's was up for lease, he approached Toadie with the idea that they go into business together and open their own practice. Toadie wasn't keen on the idea, admitting that he preferred his new job in corporate law, as it meant that he didn't feel quite so responsible for the lives of the people in his community - stemming back to when he'd failed to stop his good friend Steph from going to prison. However, after talking to Ajay and to Sonya, and realising that a solicitor who didn't know Steph might have got her sent to prison for an even longer stretch, Toadie agreed to open up a new law firm with Ajay. One of the first cases they took on was to help the Turner family, with father Matt facing losing his job as a police sergeant, when it emerged that he'd let his youngest son, Bailey go free, after catching him at the scene of a warehouse robbery in their old home of Mount Isa. In the end, Matt received a demotion to senior constable, and Bailey received a warning. Eldest Turner son Mason was also in trouble - after spending three months in juvenile detention for his part in the Mount Isa robbery, it came out that he'd also been part of a robbery at Lassiter's hotel in Erinsborough. With Ajay handling the case, Mason's prospects were looking quite good, but Ajay became suspicious when Paul suddenly decided to help Mason - who'd been dating his niece Kate - by getting Tim Collins to represent him and paying the legal bills. Knowing the dirty tricks that Paul was capable of, Ajay tried to convince Mason to take him back as his lawyer, even offering to take on the case for free, but Mason felt that he'd stand a better chance with Tim, unaware that Paul had actually told Tim to lose the case, and make sure that Mason was in prison and out of Kate's life for good. Luckily, Toadie and Ajay's doubts over the case eventually convinced Mason to change lawyers, at the last minute, and he ended up with a three-year good behaviour bond.

At home, Ajay was beginning to struggle with being both mother and father to Rani, overreacting when he feared that she and Callum were planning to sleep together. When Rani then began a new relationship with Bailey, Ajay continued to worry about her, and was furious when he found out that Susan had taken his daughter to see a doctor, believing that she'd gone on the pill so that she could have a sexual relationship. After finally sitting down and speaking to his daughter properly, Ajay learnt that Rani had actually been suffering from painful period cramps, but was too embarrassed to tell him. When the $350,000 compensation money came through from the gas company, for Priya's death, Ajay suggested that they could go and visit family in India during the next school holidays. However, when he went to call his grandmother to tell her of the plans, Ajay was upset to learn that she was in very poor health and wouldn't be alive for much longer, but hadn't wanted to say anything so soon after Priya's death. Ajay decided to fly out there straight away, at first planning for Rani to stay with the Kennedys - but after they had a heartfelt chat by Priya's memorial, he realised that he couldn't shield her from the bad things in the world forever, and they bid Ramsay Street farewell together.

Tenure
6203, 6207, 6239, 6249, 6250, 6276, 6282, 6289, 6296, 6313, 6342, 6358, 6359, 6366, 6371, 6376, 6377, 6378, 6379, 6380, 6381, 6390, 6394, 6400, 6401, 6410, 6411, 6412, 6423, 6436, 6445, 6450, 6451, 6452, 6456, 6457, 6458, 6461-6685

Magic Moments
Episode 6207: Ajay's Arrival
Episode 6685: Ajay and Rani's Departure

Biography by Steve

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