Kathmandu, Aug 23: Mamta Kafle, a 28-year-old Nepalese nurse who has been missing for three weeks from Manassas Park in the Virginia, USA, has not yet been found. The police have arrested her husband Naresh Bhatta on Thursday morning. After Bhatta’s arrest, his one-year-old daughter who was with him has been taken to a care home.
Mamata has been missing since last July 31. After she did not appear at the UVA Health Prince William Medical Center on August 2, a colleague informed the local police to understand the situation. To find out about her, the police reached her house two days later and questioned Mamata’s husband.
Bhatta was arrested on charges of hiding the body, police said. He will be produced in court on Friday. Manassas Park police in Virginia arrested the retired US army officer Naresh Bhatta on Thursday morning. He is being held without bail.
Bhatta returned to the police saying that this was a normal incident as Mamata had been out of contact for two to four days before and returned later. Bhatta, who initially did not want to lodge a complaint with the police, reached the police office on August 5. After the complaint, the police started an investigation.
Bhatta, a retired US Army officer who has participated in the Afghanistan war twice, was currently working in the White House. It is said that Mamata and Naresh do not have a good relationship.
Manassas Park Colonel Mario Lugo held a press conference in the presence of locals on Wednesday local time and said that Mamata’s husband Bhatta did not coordinate the investigation. The police searched Bhatta’s house for 12 hours since Wednesday evening.
At the time, the house was surrounded by yellow tape and Manassas Park and Prince William County police vehicles were stationed outside the home. According to the police, search warrants were issued at 10 places in connection with the disappearance of Mamata. In this process, more than a hundred people have been questioned.
Nepali communities in Virginia and across the USA have raised question and concern over the alleged involvement of Naresh, and were pressing the government officials to look into the matter seriously. #mamata
