Warning: Details in this report are disturbing.
A Northern Virginia man accused of killing and dismembering his wife, Mamta Bhatt, told an investigator after her disappearance that he never lies.
Prince William County jurors watched video of Naresh Bhatt’s interrogation in court Monday.
“On a scale of one to 10 — one being you’re not honest at all, you lie about everything, and 10 being you’re a unicorn and you never lie — how would you put yourself?” a Manassas Park police captain asked Bhatt.
“I never lie,” Bhatt replied.
“You never lie?” the detective said.
“Never lie,” Bhatt said.
Prosecutors have argued that Naresh Bhatt killed Mamta in their Manassas Park home, then dismembered her and dumped her remains throughout various trash compactors and dumpsters.
They walked the jury through the many errands Naresh Bhatt did on the day of and days after his wife disappeared in July 2024.
Surveillance video shows him buying gloves from Home Depot and heavy duty garbage bags from Lidl.
At Walmart, Naresh could be seen buying air fresheners, cleaning sprays and Clorox wipes.
He made several trips to multiple stores — some of them on the same day, prosecutors said.
The prosecution also played a video of Naresh throwing something away at a gas station. But a witness testified it might have just been paper.
One of Mamta’s friends, Nadia Navarro, testified Monday that she was uncomfortable around Naresh after Mamta disappeared.
She said he approached her at a birthday party they threw for the Bhatts’ baby, just a few weeks after Mamta went missing.
“He said he needed to tell me something,” she said.
Navarro said she never found out what Naresh wanted to tell her because she didn’t want to be alone with him.
Last week, jurors saw an 8-foot by 10-foot section of carpet investigators removed from the Bhatts’ primary bedroom. Crime scene investigator Joseph Restino testified that samples he took from the carpet tested positive for the presence of blood.
Photos of blood stains, zip ties, knives and cleaning products were also presented to the jury.
Prince William County Detective Claudia Ventura said the Bhatts’ bedroom “lit up” when crime scene investigators used Bluestar, a chemical applied to a physical surface that reacts with blood and illuminates blue when lights are turned off.
Investigators also removed the bathtub from the primary bathroom. Prosecutors showed the jury photos of what they said are blood stains seeping through the caulking and slightly pooling beneath the tub. Investigators said more blood was found inside the drain of the standing shower.
Evidence photos also show cleaning supplies on top and underneath the sink, which prosecutors claim Naresh Bhatt used to cover his tracks and clean up the crime scene.
Naresh Bhatt’s defense attorney suggested that sloppy police work might have tainted the crime scene.
She said some officers investigating at the home weren’t wearing the proper PPE and one officer left trash in the Bhatts’ kitchen after eating a hot dog.
Naresh Bhatt has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty to first-degree murder, defiling a dead body and concealment of a dead body. He has changed attorneys over the past two years and tried to get his current public defender removed from his case as recently as last month.
News4 is covering the whole trial. Video cameras are allowed in the courtroom, but live broadcasting and livestreaming are not.
The Bhatts’ daughter, who is now 3 years old, is being cared for by relatives.
News4 sends breaking news stories by email. Go here to sign up to get breaking news alerts in your inbox.
