Emmerdale fans share WILD theories about Rishi's SHOCK death

Emmerdale fans have some outlandish theories about Rishi Sharma's (Bhasker Patel) unexpected death during last night's episode (Thursday, July 27).

After 12 years in the village, a devastating cliffhanger revealed that much-loved Rishi had died suddenly at home amid his ongoing rift with son Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson). 

Jai discovered that his dad Rishi had been keeping the huge secret that he was adopted and disowned Rishi for not telling him about the identity of Jai’s real dad.

Rishi's heartbreaking death came as part of a huge revelation for the Sharma family where Jai was finally told the truth about who his real father was during his wedding to Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy).

As Jai prepared to tie the knot, Rishi and Jai's mum Georgia Sharma (Lin Blakley) paid Jai a visit at Mulberry Cottage where Rishi apologised for upsetting Laurel yesterday.

After demanding his parents to stop keeping secrets, Georgia encouraged Rishi to tell Jai the truth. Rishi then dropped the bombshell that his younger brother Amit is Jai's biological father.

Jai was furious that Rishi had kept it a secret for decades and a heated exchange ensued between the father and son as it looked like Rishi would be banned from attending the wedding.

However, Jai changed his mind and decided that he wanted Rishi and Georgia to see him get married.

Georgia passed the message on to Rishi in a voicemail, where he prepared to leave for the church, but he never made it to the ceremony.

In an emotional moment, Jai shared how much Rishi meant to him during his speech at the wedding reception in The Woolpack and declared that he was going to tell Rishi how much he meant to him the first chance he got.

The final scene then cut to Rishi lying dead at the bottom of the stairs, revealing that Jai will never get that opportunity.

Heartbroken fans were devastated by the shock twist and took to Twitter to share some strange speculations on what could have happened to Rishi...

Emmerdale continues tonight at 7:30pm on ITV1.