MANASSAS, Va. (Court TV) — Prosecutors revealed gruesome new details about a missing woman’s presumed death in court on Wednesday as they began to present their case against Naresh Bhatt.
Naresh Bhatt sits in court on Oct. 7, 2026. (Court TV)
Bhatt, 49, is charged with murder and defiling a dead body in the death of his wife, Mamta Kafle, 28, who was last seen alive in July 2024. Bhatt has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He initially told investigators that he and his wife were separating and that she had left town and cut off all contact with him.
“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: That’s the American dream,” prosecutor Matthew Sweet told the jury in his opening statement Wednesday afternoon. “This trial is going to prove how this defendant was living the American dream, and how it ultimately ended as a nightmare when the defendant kills his wife, Mamta Kafle, defiles her body, and then conceals her dead body, never to be found again.”
Bhatt grew up in Nepal before moving to the United States as an adult. Once here, he joined the U.S. Army Reserve and finished basic training, where “he learned skills to become a good soldier. He learned how to become physically fit. He learned how to handle dangerous weapons,” Sweet said. He was honorably discharged from the Army and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in October 2017.
When Bhatt and Kafle married in December 2020, he sponsored her to move to the United States from Nepal. While Bhatt worked for a federal government contractor with top-secret clearance at the White House military office, Kafle secured her green card and worked as a nurse.
Mamta Kafle (NCME)
“The defendant was experiencing the American dream to its fullest. Living that good life, making money, no restrictions on his liberty and pursuing everything that made him happy. And on July 30, 2024, the defendant throws it all away,” Sweet said. “July 30, 2024, marks the beginning of a series of the most horrific crimes against his wife, Mamta Kafle.”
Sweet didn’t specify how Kafle was killed, but said that Bhatt allegedly dismembered her body, put the parts into trash bags and then disposed of the bags in different trash compactors across Manassas Park and Fairfax County, Virginia.
Bhatt’s attorney, Tracey Lennox, urged the jury to be wary of jumping to conclusions. “There is a sort of black hole at the time of Mamta Kafle’s disappearance,” she said. “And it’s a hole where evidence should be. The hole that the government will not be able to fill for you. They’re going to try to fill the gap with ideas and speculations and guesses, but not with actual facts.”
Sweet conceded that the prosecution’s case relied heavily on circumstantial evidence, but said that the defendant’s “suspicious and conspicuous behavior,” which included giving his landscaper a reciprocating saw that was later found to have blood and Kafle’s DNA on it, was enough to prove Bhatt killed his wife. Sweet noted that on the day Kafle disappeared, the volume of water used at the house was “inconsistent with personal use — he was cleaning the scene,” and said that while police searched for his missing wife, the defendant sold his new Tesla and tried to sell his house.
Lennox acknowledged marital strife and divorce talks but said no evidence would conclusively link her client to his wife’s presumed death. “I’m genuinely sorry that you are being asked to listen to a truly gruesome and horrifying story,” she told the jury. “But it won’t actually speak to everything the Commonwealth claims happened between Naresh Bhatt and Mamta Kafle.”
The trial is expected to span six to seven weeks.
