MANASSAS, Va. — The Naresh Bhatt murder trial is now in the hands of a Prince William County jury. Deliberations began at 12:56 p.m. Tuesday, after prosecutors called their final rebuttal witnesses and both sides delivered closing arguments in a case that turns on Bhatt’s claim that his wife died by suicide, WJLA reported.
Eight women and four men make up the panel; five alternates were dismissed from the 17-member jury seated when the trial opened on October 5. The question before them is whether Bhatt, 39, killed his wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt, 28. She was a Manassas Park nurse, and her body has never been found. Under Irving’s ruling on Friday, a conviction on the lesser offense of second-degree murder is also open to them, as is acquittal. They will also decide charges of concealing a dead body and defiling a dead body. To all three charges, Bhatt has pleaded not guilty. The defense called three witnesses before resting its case on Monday.
The Commonwealth rested late Tuesday morning, at about 10:43 a.m., after three final rebuttal witnesses aimed at Bhatt’s account. Irving then denied a defense motion to strike the charges; prosecutors argued Bhatt’s credibility was “a question of credibility for the jury.”
Dr. Abigail Kearns, a medical toxicologist at UVA Health, was the first witness; the defense objected that she had been disclosed late, but Irving allowed her to testify. Celphos — the aluminium phosphide pesticide Bhatt said he found beside his wife — reacts with moisture to produce a toxic gas, Kearns explained. “All of the literature says that putting Celphos in water is problematic because once it’s in water, it activates,” she testified. The point went to Bhatt’s own testimony that he poured water into Mamta’s mouth and performed CPR for 45 minutes after finding her: Kearns said symptoms after ingestion are delayed by 20 to 30 minutes, and that a person performing CPR on someone who had recently ingested the pesticide could be exposed to the gas.
Akash Rachh, who rented a room from Bhatt in Falls Church in February 2021, testified that Bhatt threatened him and his wife with a gun during an apartment dispute that nearly turned physical. “I’ve never had a weapon in my life. No gun, no knife, no bat. Nothing was in (my) hands at the time,” Rachh said. Both men called police on each other and no arrests were made. On cross-examination, Rachh said Bhatt never laid hands on him, and Irving barred testimony from Rachh’s wife.
The prosecution’s final witness was Sunita Basnet Thapa, Mamta’s former coworker and close friend, who called Mamta her “emotional daughter.” She described Mamta as “very social, bubbly, talkative, everybody loved her,” said she was “not the type to give up or abandon her daughter” and testified that Mamta never indicated she wanted to kill herself. She also told jurors Mamta had said Bhatt had been physical with her. On cross-examination, asked whether Mamta could be in a relationship with someone else, she answered, “Yes, I think so.”
Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Sarah Sami closed for the prosecution for 47 minutes with a slide presentation, opening on a text Bhatt sent Mamta at 1:31 a.m. on February 19, 2024 — 162 days before the morning he says he found her dead: “The days are coming that you will regret a lot.” She portrayed Bhatt as a “raja” who ruled a “house of terror” and cut off his wife’s phone use, and called him a “master manipulator, master liar.” “The defendant killed Mamta Kafle. The defendant concealed the remains Mamta Kafle, and the defendant got rid of her like garbage,” she said, NBC4 Washington reported. “Don’t let him control the last memory of Mamta. Don’t let him do that.”
Don’t let him control the last memory of Mamta. Don’t let him do that.
“He had to admit what he could not deny and deny what he could not admit,” Sami said, arguing Bhatt “had every incentive … to come up with this suicide story” once the Commonwealth had presented nearly 100 witnesses and almost 500 exhibits. “Where is Naresh Bhatt’s truthfulness? There is none,” she said. “We proved our burden before he took the stand.”
Chief Public Defender Tracey Lenox argued for 24 minutes that Mamta was no “pure victim” but a woman with agency who was “deeply unhappy” in the marriage and, she suggested, suffering from postpartum depression. She told jurors their job is to seek doubt, not truth, and that a stable job and life do not make suicide a “fantasy.” The only visual account of abuse, she said, was a set of December 2023 photos and videos Mamta shared with her brother and friends: “That in itself should raise doubt.” She ended on the burden of proof: “If a doubt about what happened lives in your mind, based on reason, you must render a not guilty verdict.”
Sami had the last word in a five-minute rebuttal, saying “the circumstances in the case are consistent with guilt” and that the jury’s job is “to give justice to people who couldn’t protect themselves.” “Every action has a consequence,” she said.
Supporters of Mamta, many wearing red — her favorite color — packed the courtroom on Tuesday and waited outside after the jury retired. Irving told jurors they may deliberate as late as they wish. If they do not reach a verdict on Tuesday, deliberations will resume Thursday, after the Veterans Day holiday closes the court on Wednesday. WUSA9 reported the verdict will be streamed live when it is returned.
Arrested on August 22, 2024, Bhatt has been in custody ever since. A first-degree murder conviction in Virginia can bring a life sentence. Unless the Commonwealth proves the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, Bhatt remains presumed innocent.
Also Read: Defense Rests in Bhatt Murder Trial as Prosecutors Plan Rebuttal
Also Read: Bhatt Says He Was ‘One of the Factors’ in Mamta’s Suicide
Also Read: ‘No, Not Even Imagination’: Bhatt Denies Killing Mamta on Cross
Sources. This report draws on the following coverage; quotes are reproduced as those outlets printed them: FOX 5 DC, Court TV, NBC4 Washington, WJLA, WUSA9 and InsideNoVa.