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Editor’s note: This story contains graphic imagery and deals with suicide.
Gita Kafle’s sobs pierced the courtroom silence Thursday morning as Naresh Bhatt alleged that his wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt, committed suicide in late July 2024.
The claim came during the second day of Bhatt’s testimony in his trial for the murder of Mamta.
Bhatt said he found Mamta unconscious beside her own vomit, pesticides and pills in the early-morning hours July 30, 2024. Bhatt said he attempted to conduct CPR on his unconscious wife, using a “stethoscope and thermometer.”
During his testimony Thursday, on Day 17 of the trial, Bhatt essentially confessed to charges of concealment of a dead body and defilement of a dead body, saying he sought to “hide the body in the Potomac.”
He later confessed to cutting up her body with a saw, according to media reports.
Later, he said, he considered hanging himself at home.
Bhatt said he did not call 911 out of fear and panic. He added that “over 3,500 hours of meditation” over the past two years in prison had not provided him any more insight as to why he did not act.
During his testimony Thursday morning, Gita, Mamta’s mother, briefly exited the courtroom but then returned. Audible gasps emerged from the gallery on several occasions.
A Manassas Park nurse and mother, Mamta Kafle Bhatt was last heard from on July 29, 2024. She was 28.
Naresh Bhatt, 39, was arrested in connection with his wife’s disappearance in August 2024. He has been charged with first-degree murder, concealment of a dead body and physical defilement of a dead body, though no body has been found.
Bhatt had previously told police he didn’t know what happened to his wife. Prosecutors have not cross-examined him yet.
This is a developing story. Stay with WTOP for the latest updates.
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