SIMRAN Bhogal tricked her cousin Kirat Assi into believing Dr Bobby Jandu was the perfect man for her.
They even got engaged before Kirat found out Bhogal had been cold-heartedly catfishing her for almost a decade — the case is the focus of the new Netflix true crime documentary Sweet Bobby.
Who is Simran Bhogal?
Simran Bhogal orchestrated an intricate and long-running catfishing scheme targeting her cousin Kirat Assi.
For almost 10 years, Bhogal created and maintained a complex web of deception, centering around a fictional character named Dr Bobby Jandu, whom she portrayed as a cardiologist living in places on the other side of the planet including New York and Australia.
The real Dr Bobby Jandu is a victim of identity theft in this cruel, calculated and complicated catfishing scheme — he played no active role in the deception of Kirat Assi.
Catfishing is a term used to describe luring someone into a relationship by creating fake social media profiles.
Elaborate ruse
Simran’s elaborate ruse involved not just the creation of Dr Bobby, but also dozens of other fictional characters to support the deception.
She manipulated Kirat emotionally, creating dramatic storylines involving Bobby’s supposed injuries, illnesses and personal crises.
Kirat told the story of her betrayal and quest for justice to Alexi Mostrous in the hit podcast Sweet Bobby, a multi-part series investigating “one of the world’s most sophisticated catfishers”.
In 2022, Alexi wrote in The Sun: “I first came across Kirat’s story last June. A good source handed me a witness statement over lunch, telling me it contained details of ‘the craziest case’ he’d ever seen.
“As I read the 140-page document that night, I realised that he was right. In more than 15 years of journalism, I’ve never seen anything like it.
“The statement detailed every step of the catfishing operation — from 2009 when Kirat, from London, was first contacted on Facebook by someone called ‘JJ’, to the moment in June 2018 when Bhogal came round to her house and confessed to everything.
“Some of the details were, frankly, surreal.
“At one point, Bobby died and then came back to life, claiming he was in a witness protection programme having been shot in Kenya.
“He developed life-threatening illnesses, which meant he was stuck for long periods in hospital in New York.”
All the while, Simran maintained a close friendship with Kirat in real life, becoming one of her most trusted confidants and a source of support during the “relationship” with Bobby.
Bhogal’s employment is mentioned in the podcast, with Alexi stating: “Simran was made a vice-president at a British bank. You’d know the name. And it was a pretty big deal.”
Master of manipulation
The scam was incredibly manipulative, with Bhogal’s characters interacting not just with Kirat, but with each other as well.
In a particularly scheming scenario, Bobby asked Kirat to help him pick out some clothes for his baby son and they bought some clothes for him together online.
A couple of weeks later, Kirat saw pictures of Bobby’s real son wearing the clothes they chose.
As Alexi explained: “Simran, it seems, somehow managed to get access to photos of Bobby’s real son, presumably by Googling.
“She then worked out where the clothes he was wearing came from. And then tricked Kirat into thinking she had chosen the clothes herself.
“Another big reason why Kirat believed the scam was real was because Simran told her she had met Bobby face to face in New York, when she was on a business trip.”
Kirat confronted her cousin when she found out about the dastardly deception.
‘Why did you do this?’
She told the Sweet Bobby podcast: “I couldn’t understand it. “I just kept screaming at her, ‘Why, why did you do this? Ten years of my life. You’ve stolen ten years of my life. Why didn’t you stop? How could you be so sick?”
Following the sickening story coming to light, Bhogal has stayed quiet, only releasing a statement through her lawyers saying it was a “family dispute over events that began over a decade ago”.
Her statement continued: “As far as I’m concerned, this is a private family matter that has been resolved.
“I strongly object to the numerous unfounded and seriously defamatory accusations that have been made about me, as well as details of private matters that have been shared with the media.”
Court proceedings
Kirat initiated a civil action against Bhogal in 2020.
She first reported the matter to the police after Bhogal confessed her deception in 2018.
But Kirat decided to take civil legal action when the police declined to pursue criminal charges.
The litigation process lasted amost 18 months and the case was ultimately settled out of court.
Bhogal agreed to pay Kirat substantial damages and cover her legal costs.
Sweet Bobby premieres on Netflix on October 16, 2024.
