Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare centers on one of the most baffling catfishing scandals in internet history, and it’s led Netflix viewers to raise one pertinent question about Kirat Assi’s cousin Simran Bhogal.
Before we get into it, if you’re not familiar with the case, there are spoilers ahead.
The new true crime documentary is based on the podcast of the same name, revolving around Kirat’s nine-year saga that led her to believe she was in love and engaged to a man named Bobby Jandu.
Over the course of their relationship, which started out as a friendship, Kirat not only got to know Bobby but also dozens of his friends and family, even starting group chats with his cousins and conversing with his wife, Sanj.
Kirat was led to believe that Bobby and Sanj broke up, that Bobby was shot in Kenya, and that he ended up in witness protection in New York.
As their relationship progressed, Bobby popped the question to Kirat, during which time he revealed Sanj was pregnant following a one-night hookup.
Bobby sent pictures of his baby boy to Kirat, convincing her that she would be a stepmother to him. Here’s the thing: Bobby, Sanj, and their baby are real; they just didn’t know Kirat existed.
During their nine-year relationship, Kirat had really been speaking with her cousin Simran the whole time. Simran had either stolen or made up the identities of up to 60 people, creating a complex web of lies to manipulate Kirat.
The biggest question remains: why did she do it? Although she’s not been clear since the truth came to light, some experts believe it’s either related to control or insecurity, or even a mixture of both.
Now the Netflix documentary has dropped, it’s led to another question: how? According to the Sweet Bobby podcast hosts, Simran had gone from being at school to working in financial services.
Even someone who’s unemployed would have had a hard time maintaining the constant interaction between Kirat and Bobby, let alone all of the other identities she assumed.
After the reveal, Kirat started to realize the lengths Simran had gone to deceive her. “There’s even been times when I’ve been with Simran, and she’d be fiddling on her smartwatch, and I would get a message from Bobby.
“Now I realize that she was messaging me as Bobby while with me.”
This was raised in a Reddit thread discussing the doc, with the top comment stating, “Who has the time and energy to make up 60 FAKE PROFILES AND KEEP UP WITH THEM?”
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Another responded, “For real, her cousin is insane. I’m wondering how she had so much time on her hands. As a school kid I guess it makes sense, but after school when she started working.
“HOW did she find the time?! There’s a lot of admin work and notes she had to take to keep up with the characters. Not to mention being ‘Bobby’ was probably time consuming enough.
“To extend that to playing his friends and family too… wow. And she did it for almost 10 years?! Her life was probably just as consumed with this ruse as Kirat.
“Only difference is she consented to it. She is a deeply sick and horrid person. I think she just enjoyed controlling her cousin and seeing her unravel.
“She manipulated Kirat into leaving her job, distancing herself from friends and turned her into a recluse. She seemed to revel in turning her bright, bubbly, successful cousin into a wreck.”
One viewer was so shocked at the elaborate ruse, they believe Simran may have had someone else in it. “I wonder if the cousin told others about it? It is so much for one person to do,” they said.
“And then the staying up at night on call with her?? Were her parents never watching her? Asking her what she was doing up all night when she was younger?? Did this girl have no friends? Or were some of her friends in on it?
“I don’t know how someone can continue such a lie for nine whole years! Maybe her parents compared her so much to her cousin that she developed a hatred for her and wanted to see her downfall…
“It is scary how it started from a tiny lie to this whole obsession and creation of other profiles, and then she probably got so into the role that she became obsessed.”
Others believe more should be done to prevent situations like this from happening. “I feel like Facebook should be able to prevent this by banning multiple accounts being made by one IP address,” said one.
“Because this is crazy. She would’ve had to make 60 emails too for all the different accounts.”
To learn more about the case, Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare is streaming on Netflix now, while you can listen to the Sweet Bobby podcast on all of the usual platforms including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
For more true crime, take a look at our review of Woman of the Hour, Worst Ex Ever’s most infuriating episode, and the details left out of the Menendez brothers documentary.
