Simran Bhogal, the infamous catfisher at the heart of the documentary Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare, has kept a pretty low profile since the explosive revelations of her decade-long deception. A one-time executive at Barclays Bank, Bhogal resigned on her own accord.
However, her sudden resignation led people to believe she resigned after being exposed as the mastermind behind the catfishing of her cousin, Kirat Assi.
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Her scam was intricate: she had more than 60 fictive identities, and Assi had been tricked and separated for nearly ten years. Since the civil settlement in 2020, Bhogal kept a very low profile. According to reports from The Mirror and Cosmopolitan, Bhogal stays with her parents in North London, where she lives a private life.
She has spoken very briefly in public so far, making just a statement to the press in which she denied the “unfounded accusations” made about her, as told to Radio Times. But, her whereabouts and private life remain a mystery.
Simran Bhogal's catfishing scheme in Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare
The actions of Simran Bhogal in Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare is described by many to be one of the most elaborate and manipulative catfishing schemes ever recorded. Bhogal started her scam when she was 17 years old and had been using her ex-boyfriend's brother, Bobby Jandu, who is a dentist.
She used multiple fictive identities to deceive Kirat Assi, her cousin, for nine years. Dressed as Jandu, Bhogal weaved a complicated story involving a dead beau shot in a domestic argument, a fake long-distance romance, a shooting, and even a fling in witness protection, as Assi recounts in Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare.
The Guardian referred in January 2022 to how Kirat described the fraud as the "slow destruction" of life, damaging her profession, dreams, and relationships. Bhogal went as far as inventing a network of imaginary friends and family that support the story. It had left Assi isolated and invested in this fake relationship.
Assi testified that the psychological and emotional stress at the hands of Bhogal was severe, mainly on the breaking of trust with her family and friends by Kirat. She mentioned that the deception had caused her mental and physical health problems, leaving her unmarried and childless when she reached 40 years of age.
People reported that Bhogal never even gave an account of her actions. So, there is still a lot more the public does not know about the motivation behind this kind of protracted fraud, as seen in Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare.
Legal consequences and Simran Bhogal’s current life after the events of Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare
Although Bhogal's catfishing scheme was devastating for Assi, she didn't face criminal charges. It was only in 2018 that Assi filed a complaint with the police and was told that catfishing does not fall under any prosecutable crime in the UK, as it does not fall under fraud or any other crime.
However, in 2020 Assi filed a civil claim out of court and agreed to a settlement with Bhogal paying a significant amount to Assi, together with court costs.
According to The Mirror, Bhogal attempted to spin the case as a "family dispute", while also claiming that her health and finances were affected by the case. After the settlements, Bhogal vanished from the spotlight.
Cosmopolitan claims that Bhogal left her job at Barclays to move in with her parents in North London. More recently, Bhogal has spoken out about her dissatisfaction with the case receiving all this media attention after the Sweet Bobby podcast and the Netflix documentary unmasking her.
In a brief statement, she vehemently protested "the defamatory accusations" against her and maintained that the situation was settled. Nonetheless, Bhogal remains an object of public intrigue; many are still searching for reasons behind her rather elaborate manipulation.
The tale of Kirat Assi caught in Simran Bhogal's catfishing scandal is now streaming on Netflix in a documentary called Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare.
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