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Naresh Bhatt was denied bond Friday in Prince William County Circuit Court after prosecutors revealed incriminating new evidence and an updated timeline in the disappearance of Mamta Kafle Bhatt.
Judge Kimberly A. Irving presided over the lengthy hearing, which lasted approximately two and a half hours. Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Sarah Sami laid out a new timeline of events during a 45-minute presentation that featured several new revelations.
At the hearing’s onset, Senior Assistant Public Defender Shalev Ben-Avraham outlined the basis for his bond motion, claiming that a Manassas Park police detective “lied to a magistrate” in filing the initial criminal complaint that led to Naresh Bhatt’s arrest on a charge of concealing his wife’s dead body.
Irving countered, saying the question of bond was rather incumbent on whether Bhatt is currently a flight risk and a danger to the community.
“The issue is not did the magistrate make a mistake [or] to quash the warrant … that’s a ship that I believe has sailed,” Irving said.
“On the statute, they don’t have probable cause,” Ben-Avraham replied. “I do not believe [Bhatt] is a flight risk.”
Ben-Avraham noted that Bhatt “served seven years honorably in the Army” and “worked IT at the White House” and that Bhatt would be willing to submit to GPS monitoring should bond be granted.
Following the prosecution’s playing of a 14-minute body-worn camera video from Aug. 2 – the first interaction between Manassas Park police officers and Naresh Bhatt following Mamta Bhatt’s disappearance – Irving told Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Sweet she needed to see more from the commonwealth.
“The complaint said he killed her, so we need to evaluate the strength of the commonwealth’s case,” Irving said. “I need something from you, what are we going on?”
Sami then took over from Sweet, providing a number of new details in the timeline of Mamta Bhatt’s disappearance, including the update that Manassas Park police have now executed over 25 search warrants in the case.
The rest of the new timeline updates went as follows:
- July 29: The date of Mamta Bhatt’s final video call with her mother, to whom she habitually spoke twice a day.
- July 30, 5:40 a.m.: Naresh Bhatt sends the Bhatts’ babysitter, Amanda, a text.
- July 30, 6:30 a.m.: Bhatt drops off the couple’s daughter, Neema, at the babysitter’s apartment at Clark Place in Manassas.
- July 30, 6:40 a.m.: Bhatt is seen on camera dropping several plastic and trash bags into a dumpster at the apartment complex.
- July 30 and July 31: Bhatt is seen on camera discarding bags at various dumpsters.
- July 30, 4:13 a.m.: Bhatt performs a Google search for “Diagram of brain” and at 4:30 a.m., looks up “Chicken farm near me.”
- Later that morning: Bhatt goes shopping at Home Depot and Walmart, buying a set of knives at the latter. That evening, he purchases a “40-pack of extra strong black trash bags,” according to Sami.
- July 31, 1:30 a.m.: Bhatt is captured on video in Falls Church retrieving bags from his Tesla and putting them into a trash compactor. His Tesla tracks him to that location, but his phone is inactive and not on his person at that time.
- July 31, 5:30 p.m.: Bhatt disposes of more items in the same dumpster at the babysitter’s apartment complex.
- July 31, 7 p.m.: Bhatt returns to the apartment complex to pick up Neema. The babysitter later tells police that Bhatt “was nervous and kept looking around,” Sami said.
- Sami notes that between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. on July 31, over 150 gallons of water are consumed by the Bhatt residence – a far cry from the typical 3-4 gallons per hour, according to Sami.
- Aug. 1: Naresh Bhatt’s phone is off with no activity, but Mamta Bhatt’s phone sends out a signal from Loudoun County. That day, Naresh Bhatt goes to eat at a Liberty gas station, walks back to his Tesla “with a visible limp,” according to Sami, grabs some bags at his car, and walks over to a clothing donation bin – where police later find a bag with a white bath mat featuring light pink and reddish-brown staining that tests positive for blood.
- After Aug. 1: Sami reveals that in addition to missing Neema’s first birthday on Aug. 20, Mamta Bhatt also misses her final United States Citizenship and Immigration Services appointment to become a U.S. citizen.
- Sometime after Aug. 2: Naresh Bhatt asks the downstairs tenants in the Bhatt residence to help him move the bed in his bedroom.
Sami also revealed that in February, Mamta Bhatt sent a picture of her bloody face with a swollen eye to her brother in Nepal “in case they needed to use it later,” Sami said.
Sami concluded that Naresh Bhatt’s frequenting of various dump sites while wearing gloves at these locations, his choice to sell his Tesla, his visible attempt to pack suitcases in order to presumably flee the country and Mamta Bhatt’s lack of contact with her mother since their last call July 29 were sufficient to render Naresh Bhatt a flight risk and a danger to the community.
Irving concurred, citing that Bhatt acted with malicious intent.
“Frankly, the evidence as proffered by the commonwealth is overwhelming – certainly at a probable cause level,” Irving said.
Following the hearing, Holly Wirth, a former coworker of and advocate for Mamta Bhatt, praised Irving’s ruling.
“I think I stood at this mic once before and said that what we heard was shocking and horrific – what we heard today was more shocking and horrific,” Wirth said. “I don’t think any of us understood the weight of the crime – we all wanted to know where Mamta was, when are we going to get her back, where are we going to find her … and the truth is, we’re not going to get her back, because he disposed of her in a way that put her in a landfill.”
Wirth continued, “That is hard to hear, but at the end of the day, we still stand here fighting for justice. We are going to be Mamta’s voice until the end of this trial, until all of his appeals are exhausted, and we know that he is exactly where he needs to be.”
