London woman Harkirat Assi catfished for 9 years by cousin

Harkirat Kaur Assi, aka Kirat Assi, a woman from West London, fell victim to one of the most notorious catfishing incidents ever revealed. For over a decade beginning in 2009, Kirat was deceived into a relationship with an imaginary man named Bobby Jandu, orchestrated by her cousin, Simran Bhogal.
Her story first came to light through a series of episodes on the true-crime podcast “Sweet Bobby”, hosted by Alexi Mostrous in 2022. Now, Netflix will be releasing a documentary series detailing the same incident on 16 October 2024.
Kirat, according to her website, is a successful marketer and local radio presenter. The 43-year-old resident of West London runs kiratassi.co.uk to share the details of her case with the world and offer resources for people who have experienced similar incidents.
Kirat was “carefully and strategically” made a target of manipulation by her own cousin, who she said she “treated as a younger sister”. Sharing her story on a podcast titled “Sweet Bobby”, Kirat said the manipulation took place online and in the real world involving over 50 characters, some of whom she knew of through friends and family in the real world.
The manipulation involved coercive control, catfishing, identity theft, and other forms of abuse and harassment.
According to Kirat, the manipulation was sophisticated, complex and of epic proportions, hard to understand or believe, and therefore she found herself effectively silenced when even the police did not know how to respond.
In the podcast, Kirat revealed that she met a man named Bobby Jandu on social media and gradually, the two developed a friendship. After a point, she shared that they would speak on the phone every day, and their conversation would, at times, also become sexual.
Kirat described how Bobby, who said he lived in Australia, would claim to be in extreme situations, such as being shot and suffering from a brain tumour. There came a point when Kirat said Bobby would become coercive and possessive with her which caused her health issues and severe stress.
Notably, Kirat had never met Bobby in person or video called.
Fed up with the situation, Kirat hired a detective to uncover Bobby Jandu’s identity. She only found out that her cousin, Simran Bhogal, to whom she had been regularly conveying the private details of her relationship, was behind the scheme.
According to Kirat’s website, she filed a civil case against her cousin, which has been settled following a private apology.