E-Paper
Naresh Bhatt found guilty of first-degree murder after admitting to dismembering wife Mamta Kafle; could get 20 years to life
Naresh Bhatt had claimed his wife Mamta Kafle died by suicide but admitted on stand that he'd dismembered her.
Prefer HTon Google
Naresh Bhatt, on November 10, was found guilty of murdering his wife Mamta Kafle. Jurors in Virginia found him guilty of first-degree murder though Bhatt had claimed his wife died by suicide, even after he admitted on stand that he'd dismembered her body.
Bhatt was also found guilty of defiling and concealing Kafle's body, NBC Washington reported. The verdict which came on Tuesday followed six weeks of testimony from several witnesses. Ahead of the jury deliberation, a legal expert had noted that they would either swing towards a first-degree charge or towards an acquittal, after it was reported that jurors had been instructed to consider a second-degree charge as well.
During closing arguments, prosecution told the jury not to believe Bhatt's “made up crazy story”.
What Naresh Bhatt told the jury vs what he said earlier
He had claimed to have found his wife dead, surrounded by vomit, blood and an open packet of a fatally poisonous pesticide.
However, WUSA 9 reported that this account was wildly different from what Bhatt had said in 2024. At the time, he'd reportedly said he last saw her on July 31, the day after she died. Bhatt had also said he had no idea where she was, as per the report.
Bhatt's accounts differed where he's once said he had an argument with his wife before she apparently left. However, he had changed his version when speaking to cops, saying they had had a normal night.
On stand, Bhatt even suggested that finding Kafle dead had triggered his PTSD. He claimed that he then began to dismember her in a state of mind that Bhatt was not fully in control of.
What prosecution said about Naresh Bhatt
Senior Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Sarah Sami said, “The defendant murdered Mamta Kafle, the defendant dismembered Mamta Kafle and the defendant got rid of her like garbage.”
Sami added, “He gave her a final resting place of the landfill in Luray, Virginia. Mamta will always be missing for that family there. Always be missing. We know she’s dead, but she is missing because they will never be able to give her her last rights. She’s in pieces, crushed in some landfill somewhere. That is what this family will have to live with.”
What's next for Naresh Bhatt
Bhatt's sentencing hearing is in March 2027. He could get a minimum of 20 years in jail and a maximum of life in prison for the first-degree murder conviction. The convictions of concealing and defiling a body each have five-year sentences.
