Kirat Assi, the victim at the heart of the catfishing scandal featured in the Netflix documentary Sweet Bobby, has opened up about her feelings towards her cousin, Simran Bhogal, who created 60 fake profiles and posed as various people, including Kirat’s supposed fiancé, Bobby, over the course of nearly a decade.
Kirat, who successfully sued Simran in a civil case and received a private apology, spoke candidly to HELLO! about her ability to forgive her cousin. She said: "Honestly, I am a person of faith and forgiveness is a big thing.
"When thinking about forgiveness, I just don’t think about it. I just don’t want her in my aura. I don’t want to hear her vicinity. I don’t know how I’d feel if I saw her. She hasn’t been held accountable yet. She hasn’t held herself accountable. I just want her to be accountable."
Kirat emphasized that her focus is on accountability, rather than revenge, saying: "Until those things happen, I don’t know. But at the same time, it’s not for me to seek revenge. Unless I’m questioned about her, I don’t talk about her. This is about the issues. Society made what happened a lot worse. We could have resolved this within the family, but they didn’t. Police didn’t. The legal system looked after themselves in the civil case as far as I’m concerned."
Kirat expressed the emotional toll that the situation has taken on her as the victim, but also pointed out the importance of raising awareness to prevent further harm: "So who suffers at every point? It’s the victim who suffers. I’m raising that awareness. Let’s stop hurting the victim more. By doing this I’m hurting myself, but I don’t want other victims to feel how I felt."
She also urged people to refrain from tracking down Simran or her family online, warning against seeking personal retribution: "There’s no revenge in this, it’s about accountability. I don’t want that to happen. I want us to be able to trust in our justice system, hold them to account. Let’s put pressure on them to get things moving quickly."
Kirat highlighted that Simran was family, not a stranger, and asked that others respect her relatives: "Someone hunting her down, her family down, even if I’m not talking to that part of my family, they’re still family. Whatever that person’s done, their parents didn’t do it, and they have to suffer. We’re all suffering as a family and a community. By people trying to do that online, you’re no better than what she did. Let’s put the pressure on the right people to do the right thing… But don’t go around causing harm and hurt to people because it’s hard enough for all of us anyway."
Viewers of Sweet Bobby took to X (formerly Twitter) to share their reactions. One user wrote: "Just watched #SweetBobby on Netflix. It’s mind-boggling how someone can create 60 Facebook profiles just to catfish their own cousin!"
Another added: "Simran telling Kirat, ‘You ruined your own life’ after single-handedly orchestrating a manipulative catfishing scheme for 9 years is absolutely evil. No empathy or remorse at all."
