Jury sees Naresh Bhatt’s WUSA9 interviews as murder trial resumes

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: And right now at five, testimony resumed today in the Naresh Bhatt murder trial today. Those called to stay tall to the stand helped to paint a picture of his relationship with his wife, Mamta. Thank you for joining us. I'm Leslie Foster and a reminder of the details in this case can be pretty tough to hear. So we've been following this for you since 2024, that is when Mamta Kafle Bhatt was reported missing, and since then her husband Naresh has been charged with murdering Mamta, dismembering and dumping her body around Northern Virginia. Prosecutors spent time analyzing Naresh's behavior in the days following Mamta's disappearance today, and that includes showing some interviews conducted by WUSA 9. Katie Lusso has been on top of this case since Mamta was first reporting missing reported missing court wrapped up for the day in the last hour, and Katie, you and Raphael Sanchez Cruz interviewed Naresh pretty early on, so talk to us about these interviews that were used in court today. [00:00:58] Speaker 2: Yes, our court wrapped around 4:00 o'clock in the last 30 minutes were spent going through those two interviews. The first was from August 12th of 2024, and that was conducted by our own Rafael Sanchez Cruz, and it's him interviewing Naresh Bhatt outside of the police department, really just trying to see if Naresh wanted to tell him about his wife's disappearance. You know, we do these stories quite frequently, and he was trying to get a gauge on whether or not Mr Bhatt wanted to speak with us about his wife to get the word out there about how he was feeling. Obviously we had been covering her disappearance just based on what friends and community members were saying. Now that second interview was conducted by me and it was done on August 14th of 2024, and this is a conversation I had with Naresh Bhatt at his front door, and we were talking about his wife and just really trying to get some clarity on the timeline of when things happened, when he last saw his wife and when he reported her missing. Obviously we know there was a little bit of a discrepancy in when all of that played out, some confusion. We knew she was last seen at work on July 27th. She had spoken to her mother on July 29th, and Naresh had said that he had dinner with her on the 29th, but she never showed up to work the following day, and so that was mainly a lot of the questions we had of when did you actually last see her and why did you not immediately report her missing? So that was one of the main words that we had on the other side, and that was a lot of the questions we had of when did you actually last see her and why did you not immediately report her missing? So that was one of the main points of conversation late in the afternoon today. Leslie, yeah, I know these have [00:02:22] Speaker 1: been some pretty long days with lots of elements to go through. What other big moments stood out to you this afternoon? [00:02:30] Speaker 2: Yeah, well, before that we had heard from several of Monta's friends and colleagues, but we also saw some brand new surveillance footage that was captured from the hospital that Monta had just started working at. It was from the night of July 27th of 2024 and it's surveillance footage of Monta and a colleague leaving the hospital for the day around 7:30, 8:00 o'clock at night and then sitting outside the hospital and waiting for their rides. They were both waiting on Ubers and Monta is the one who leaves first and it was really just confirmation that Monta did leave the hospital that night. Her friend telling jurors that she got into an Uber to left to leave and to head home and obviously, you know, there was some confusion over what happened next. The friend did mention and the colleague, I'll say she mentioned that she texted Monta that night just because she had some concerns while she was in her own Uber about some personal things and she said mom didn't respond to her that night, which was unlike her, but she did get back to her the next day, Leslie. All right, all right, Katie, so the lead detective in this case interviewed in a rush spot [00:03:29] Speaker 1: several times and we heard from her today. What did she say? Yeah, we heard from her today. We also heard from her last weekend. We watched the night of July 28th of 2021. three different body worn cameras [00:03:38] Speaker ?: that were on when she was [00:03:39] Speaker 2: conducting her interviews with Nuresh Shabbat. She had spoken to Nuresh Shabbat on August 6th when she was first assigned to the case August 9th because she realized she had some more questions for him. Things just were not adding up. And then again on August 14th and we got to see some of those videos play out in court and she was also asked about some of the different conversations. I'd like to refer to one of the big conversations that happened with her. She was also asked about some of the different conversations. I'd like to refer to one of the big conversations that happened to the last time Nuresh saw her. Now Nuresh had initially told police that his wife was in blue scrubs. Again, that was the night of July 29th. She was supposed to be at work the next morning and the detective questioned him and said, you know, why was she wearing blue scrubs the night before going to work? And that was when he kind of changed his tune and she said, what was your wife wearing? He said, I don't know. She asked him again and he said a t-shirt, trousers and blue New Balance sneakers. And he said, I don't know. He said, I don't know. And he said a t-shirt, trousers and blue New Balance sneakers. So there was a little bit of confusion there of what she was wearing and I'll mention that the defense said, hey, would you remember something that had happened nine days earlier? The detective said no. But then when she was pressed by the prosecution about whether or not she would remember what her partner was wearing the last time she saw them, if they were to go missing, she said, I'd remember everything. So, you know, a little bit of confusion there on what exactly he remembered and was sharing. They also talked about a February 24th and 20 February, 24 incident involving a plate that apparently hit Mamda in the head and a rush had made a gesture when the body camera was playing, saying that he went like this and the plate hit her in the head. And there were some questions about whether he meant he hit her with the plate or how that plate ends it up there. So there was some confusion over that and then some of the other things that came up. Mamda was apparently scheduled to meet with immigration on August 5th for her final appointment to become a US citizen. She did not make it to that appointment, obviously. And then the last thing that came up was that Naresh made a point to tell investigators that Mamda's job was her number one priority over everything, her family, her baby, every single thing. And obviously we've heard from her family and her her loved ones and her friends that that was not the case in their opinion. Leslie so much came out in this day of testimony, Katie, and they've got a lot more to get to. Thank you for that update. And of course, we've heard that they're not going to get to the next week. [00:05:45] Speaker 1: We've heard from her family and her loved ones and her friends that that was not the case in their opinion. Leslie so much came out in this day of testimony, Katie, thank you for that update. And of course, W USA 9 has been your go to source for this case since Mamda was first reported missing in 2024. We will be in court every day. Keep up with our coverage. Scan this QR code and those updates are always available.