The public defender representing Naresh Bhatt, the Manassas Park man charged in connection with the disappearance and presumed death of his wife, will ask a judge Wednesday to release him from jail until trial.
Mamta Kafle Bhatt was last seen on July 29, 2024 in a video call with her mother.
Naresh Bhatt was charged with first-degree murder and defiling a dead body in December 2024. He had been charged, but not indicted, for concealing a dead body in August 2024.
Naresh Bhatt’s public defender, Laurel Rodewald, requested and was granted a bond hearing for Wednesday. Naresh Bhatt has twice been denied bond.
In August 2024, a judge in Prince William County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court said Naresh Bhatt was a flight risk and a danger to the community.
On September 2024, after the defense raised questions about inconsistencies in the police investigation, bond was denied. After Prince William County prosecutors laid out a timeline, Circuit Court Judge Kimberly Irving said, “The evidence as proffered by the commonwealth is overwhelming 鈥� certainly at a probable cause level.”
Naresh Bhatt has remained in the Prince William County Adult Detention Center.
“Mr. Bhatt is neither a flight risk nor a danger to himself or others,” Rodewald wrote in the motion for a bond hearing filed Tuesday. “Counsel will provide further argument regarding his change in circumstances and argument for bond at the hearing on June 3, 2026.”
Rodewald did not immediately return a 海角精品黑料 request for clarification on the change of circumstances that would merit pretrial release.
Two weeks ago, Prince William County police submitted three human hairs and 13 hair fragments they said was found on a handheld power saw from the Bhatt home after Mamta Bhatt disappeared.
An October 2024 report from Virginia’s Department of Forensic Science indicated blood found on parts of the same reciprocating saw matched a DNA profile created from Mamta Bhatt’s hairbrush. Her body has never been found.
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