Naresh Bhatt admitted on the witness stand Thursday that he dismembered his wife's body and put her remains in the household trash bin after finding her dead in the primary bedroom of their home as a result of an apparent suicide.
The shocking admission, delivered during Bhatt's second day of testimony in his own defense, sharply contradicted his earlier account to police after his wife, Mamta Kafle, went missing in late July 2024.
Bhatt had insisted that she did not return from work and that he did not know where she was. The testimony in Prince William County Circuit Court on Thursday, Nov. 5 was the first time Bhatt claimed publicly that she died by suicide and that he dismembered her body.
Prosecutors allege he killed Kafle and then dismembered and disposed of her body.
“At some point did you start to cut the body up?” Chief Public Defender Tracey Lenox asked Bhatt in the courtroom. “Yes,” Bhatt replied.
His response was met with an audible reaction from the packed courtroom, where family, friends, supporters and other spectators were watching.
Kafle’s mother, Gita Kafle, bent over in her seat as Bhatt admitted dismembering and disposing of her daughter’s body. Jurors showed li...