Culturally, a divorced man isn't exactly prized in South Asian culture. They're considered to be bad luck and a disgrace. A lot of men will hide they've been divorced or had marital issues, because a lot of more traditional families will refuse to marry off their daughters to a divorced man. Remember, South Asians are the least likely to divorce in the entire world, even lower than the Middle East. I think the divorce rate is 1%-2%. With that being said, a divorced woman is also considered bad luck and would face difficulties getting remarried as well. I suspect Mamta felt that she had a good support system in the States (her friends are great people) which gave her the motivation to pursue potential divorce. I also suspect after gaining citizenship, she'd apply for and sponsor her family to come over eventually.
At least in my family's part of South Asia, the female to male ratio is abysmal. I think it's like 875 females per 1,000 males? In the early 1900s it used to be less than 800. Women do have a lot of choices these days in South Asia, at least when it comes to arranged marriages. Arranged marriages aren't like what they used to be a couple decades ago where you're forced to marry someone you've never seen, it's more like "okay, my family recommended someone, I'll meet up with him and his family a couple times and see if I like him or not". Still not so great because I think the best way to actually know someone is to live with them for quite some time, however living with someone before marriage (that isn't part of your immediate family) is still severely frowned upon in South Asia.
The arranged marriage dynamic in South Asia is quite interesting. It's said that you don't just marry a person, you marry their entire family. I read an article that Mamta was having trouble with her in-laws and apparently her MIL wasn't fond of her? Honestly, this is extremely common in many cultures, but it's extremely bad in South Asian culture because it's supposed to be the daughter in law's duty to "appease" the elders. South Asian mothers dote on their sons to an extreme extent, and are willing to excuse certain things that they'd never excuse for their daughters (this doesn't apply to all families of course, but will apply to the majority IMO). When a son gets married, the new daughter in law will face excessive scrutiny and anything minor will be criticized (sometimes the DIL doesn't do anything wrong at all, but gets criticized anyway). Here's a great journal that expands upon the MIL and DIL dynamic in South Asia:
Violence Perpetrated by Mothers-in-Law in Northern India: Perceived Frequency, Acceptability, and Options for Survivors - PubMed . Here's another article that elaborates upon the South Asian preference for sons and how women are viewed less than:
5X Fest | How son preference in the South Asian community contributes to the cycle of abuse and violence
I mention the MIL - son, DIL - husband angle because it's well documented and known that in South Asian households many men will give preference to their mother over their wives. So, when there's trouble brewing between the MIL and DIL,
it's really, really bad news because at times the husband will also turn against his wife. I'm not sure if this dynamic was happening in the Bhatt household, but wouldn't be surprised if it was.
Feel like Bhatt was probably going to cook up the story that his "wife ran away" and paint Mamta to be the bad one. Either that or pretend he was never married in the first place. He probably understood what was coming (divorce) and wanted to get rid of Mamta before it could actually go to court. I suspect he was planning to return to Nepal and start a new life there, maybe hoodwink a poor and oblivious woman from a village. I'm actually shocked he didn't take Mamta on a "family trip" or "holiday" back to the homeland/Nepal and murder her there. This is usually the modus operandi of murderous South Asian households. They will take the person they want to get rid off back to South Asia, either hire someone to get rid of them or get rid of them themselves, and then return back to the west. By doing this, it's waaay harder for them to be convicted for a crime or for LE to even bother becoming suspicious sadly...
Honestly, overall, Bhatt was just a dumb dude in general. It's clear he was let go from many jobs because he flat out sucked. He isn't some genius conniving murderous mastermind, everything he did was quite poorly planned and literally everyone suspected him from the start. Hope he rots in prison.
wtop.com
www.nbcwashington.com
wjla.com
www.insidenova.com
Maybe, he tried (again) to use a woman, who in turn tried to use him (residence permit comes to mind). MOO
