Where is Kirat Assi now? Details explored ahead of Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare on Netflix 

Netflix’s new true crime documentary film Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare will focus on Kirat Assi and will elaborate on how she was a victim of catfishing. This documentary is directed by Lyttanya Shannon and will feature exclusives from the victim, Kirat Assi herself.

With a runtime of 1 hour and 22 minutes, Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare will arrive on Netflix on October 16, 2024. The synopsis for the same reads:

"After an online friendship blossoms into true love, Kirat finds herself turning detective to uncover the truth behind her mysterious fiancé, Bobby. Inspired by the hit podcast, Sweet Bobby is the story of a fairytale romance gone horribly wrong."

Kirat Assi, who is a marketer and also a radio presenter by profession, is now living a quiet life in West London.

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What happened to Kirat Assi?

Kirat Assi was a victim of catfishing.

(Note: The practice of fabricating online personas to trick, influence, control, and entice individuals is known as catfishing. Catfishers typically create fictitious accounts in order to perpetrate fraud or engage in romantic relationships online.)

In 2009, Kirat Assi received a friend request from a cardiologist named Bobby Jandu. Their friendship, which started in 2009, became a romantic one in 2015, and the two were online couples, who would talk on voice calls daily, share voice notes, and more.

Reportedly, whenever Kirat wanted to video call Bobby several times, he always had a valid excuse to skip the video call. As reported by Sky News, Bobby claimed to have been shot several times and had a heart attack, a stroke, and a tumor while he was in an online relationship with Kirat Assi.

Eventually, Kirat Assi began suspicious of her online lover, however, there were many accounts on the web, that claimed to be Bobby’s distant relatives. They seconded Bobby’s stories and life events, to make sure that Kirat Assi believed in what he said.

As per claims by Kirat, towards the end of her online relationship, her lover became toxic and also asked her to isolate herself from her friends and family. She was also told to leave her job. Kirat next hired a private detective, who went to the cardiologist’s home to discover that the online account was not his and that Kirat was a victim of long-term catfishing.

In the trailer of Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare, Kirat talks about how she wasted many years of her life. With regards to that, she says:

"What happened to me is just one crazy story. You can’t make it up. We’re talking about ten years of my life."

Later, when Kirat filed a case against the same, in 2018, there was no investigation done. However, in 2020, the UK civil court took action against the criminal and told her to give a private apology and even compensate the victim, by paying her legal expenses and other fees.

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Who stole Bobby’s identity?

A still from Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare (Image by Netflix)

Bobby’s identity was stolen by Kirat’s younger cousin Simran Bhogal, who confessed the same to Kirat in 2018, after which Kirat went to court in 2020. Kirat decided to take civil legal action and the case was settled in court with Bhogal agreeing to pay the legal expenses and other compensations to Kirat.

By sharing her tale on Netflix, Kirat aims to raise awareness and prevent others from falling victim to catfishing. With that in mind, she said:

"There's so much online abuse and bullying. There's so much victim shaming, which stops people from speaking up... all of us have been suffering in silence."

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To know more about Kirat's story, watch Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare, arriving on Netflix on October 16, 2024.