Naresh Bhatt held without bond in missing Manassas mom case

MANASSAS PARK, Va. — A judge has ruled Naresh Bhatt be held without bond during a hearing in court Monday morning. A judge said Bhatt was considered a flight risk following his arrest for disposing a body last week. The judge also said he posed a danger to the community.

Police found evidence that a body had been dragged, and large amounts of blood were evident at the home of Mamta Kafle Bhatt, according to court documents from her husband's arraignment Friday morning. 

In the documents, Manassas Park Police officer C. Ventura wrote that police found a substantial amount of digital and forensic evidence and that police believe Naresh Bhatt murdered Mamta Kafle Bhatt and attempted to cover it up.

"There was evidence in the residence indicating the body was inside the residence and dragged out of the residence," the officer wrote in the criminal complaint.

Naresh Bhatt has been charged with concealing a dead body.

On Friday, Mamta Bhatt's loved ones heard the gruesome picture prosecutors are painting during Naresh Bhatt's arraignment in Prince William Court. 

"The volume of blood," said Holly Wirth, Mamta Bhatt's former colleague. "They used the words blood pooling. They identified large volumes of what looked like blood stains."

Investigators say they found the Bhatt home in disarray, with evidence of blood mainly in the primary bedroom and corresponding bathroom. They are still waiting on test results to come back, to confirm whether or not the blood is Mamta Bhatt's.

"While we have all had our own ideas, I don't think the horrific nature is what we expected to hear today," said Wirth. 

Mamta Bhatt went missing three weeks ago. She was last seen at UVA Health Health Prince William Medical Center on July 27. She spoke to a friend on the phone on July 28. 

She also posted a video of her baby crawling up the stairs on her TikTok account on July 28.

On Aug. 2, a welfare check was called to the Bhatts’ home. When Manassas Park Police conducted the welfare check, officers said that Naresh Bhatt did not want to report Mamta Bhatt missing because he said she was with family in Texas or New York but prosecutors say Mamta Bhatt doesn't have family in the U.S.

He reported Mamta Bhatt missing three days later, on Aug. 5. 

Friends of Mamta Bhatt organized searches for her in the weeks after she was reported missing, and the Manassas Park Police named Naresh Bhatt a "person of interest" on Aug. 21. Naresh Bhatt was arrested the next day on charges of concealing a dead body. WUSA9 was there when he was led from the home in handcuffs. 

Prosecutors say Naresh Bhatt’s timeline he gave police was completely wrong and he changed his story. Naresh Bhatt had told WUSA9 and officials that he last saw her on July 31, but court documents show that she may have died on July 30.

Additionally, prosecutors say on July 30 Naresh Bhatt purchased three knives, two of which have not been found. Investigators say there is video evidence of Naresh Bhatt buying cleaning supplies the very next day. 

Prosecutors also say Naresh Bhatt sold his Tesla the week he was arrested and even tried to sell his home. When investigators got inside the house, they say the husband and father had packed up, with his and his daughter's passports in plain sight. 

He is only being charged with concealing a body at this point because prosecutors haven’t presented evidence that he actually killed his wife yet.

Naresh Bhatt claimed Mamta Bhatt destroyed her own phone before disappearing, prosecutors say, but the phone kept receiving messages and calls up until Aug. 1 when the phone eventually died. 

Investigators say the last cell tower that her phone made a connection with was in Loudoun County. Naresh Bhatt allegedly told police he was at a cafe in Loudoun County around the same time the phone pinged.

During Friday's hearing, his attorney called the case a 'media frenzy' and said they had no actual evidence. He asked for Naresh Bhatt to be released, but the judge ordered that he be held on no bond at his hearing Monday morning.

WUSA9 spoke to Naresh Bhatt twice in the weeks since Mamta Bhatt went missing.