A US jury has found Nepali-American Naresh Bhatt guilty of murdering his wife, Mamta Kafle, dismembering her body and disposing of it in a landfill in Virginia in 2024.Bhatt was convicted of first-degree murder, defiling a body and concealing a body on Tuesday. His wife, a 28-year-old registered nurse, disappeared from their home in Manassas Park in July 2024. Her body has never been recovered.In a surprise testimony last week, Bhatt admitted that he had dismembered and disposed of his wife’s body but denied killing her. He claimed he found her dead from an apparent suicide.During his testimony, Bhatt said he discovered Kafle’s body in their primary bedroom on July 30, 2024. He testified that he spent the next day and a half cutting up her body and placing the remains in trash bags before disposing of them in different dumpsters.Prosecutors, however, accused him of murdering his wife and attempting to get rid of the evidence.“The defendant murdered Mamta Kafle, the defendant dismembered Mamta Kafle, and the defendant got rid of her like garbage,” Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Sarah Sami said.Sami also told the jury that Bhatt had given Kafle “a final resting place in the landfill in Luray, Virginia”.“This verdict represents an important measure of justice for Mamta Kafle Bhatt, whose life was tragically taken and whose family has endured more than two years of unimaginable pain and uncertainty,” Amy Ashworth, Attorney of the Commonwealth of Virginia, said in a statement.Bhatt faces a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison for the first-degree murder conviction. The convictions for concealing and defiling a body carry additional sentences of up to five years each. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 12 next year.
Bhatt’s past in the US
Bhatt served as an automated logistics specialist (92A) in the US army reserve from June 2017 to February 2024. He had no deployments and left the Army with the rank of specialist, army public affairs said, according to Fox 5.He was also briefly employed as a police recruit by the Fairfax County Police Department. The department told Fox 5 that Bhatt joined on June 22, 2020, but failed to meet the requirements of his role and was dismissed on November 16, 2020, after spending 22 days at the Fairfax County Criminal Justice Academy.Kafle worked as a registered nurse at a medical centre in Manassas, Virginia.During the trial, Bhatt also spoke about his upbringing in Nepal, the experiences that shaped his life and his decision to move to the US in search of better opportunities.
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