Indian-origin Mahendra Patel, ‘wrongly’ accused in high-profile Walmart kidnapping case, granted $10,000 bond
After spending 49 days at the Cobb County Jail in Georgia, Indian-origin engineer Mahendra Patel was granted a $10,000 bond on Tuesday in the high-profile Walmart ‘attempt to kidnap’ case in which Patel was ‘wrongly’ arrested and incarcerated. On March 18, Mahendra Patel went to the Cobb County Walmart looking for Tylenol medicine for his mother. He asked a woman, Caroline Miller, for help. Miller was on a motorized cart with her two children. When Miller showed him the direction where he would find his medicine, Patel grabbed her two-year-old son in an attempt to kidnap him; Miller accused. But Patel said he was just making sure that the child did not fall. Patel was arrested after Miller lodged a complaint and was behind bars, but his attorney recently released surveillance footage showing that there was no force, no tug-of-war between them over the kid.
Past criminal record of Mahendra Patel
The prosecution on Tuesday opposed to Patel’s release citing his previous arrests for fraud and DUI. “To clarify, the defendant is not entitled to bond as a matter of right. It is entirely at the court’s discretion whether to grant bond,” assistant district attorney Jason Evans said. “However, the court is not required to grant it, and the defendant’s bond status was initially set at ‘no bond” by a magistrate judge based on the sufficiency of the evidence at the warrant stage.” The prosecution argued that Patel was previously convicted of conspiracy to defraud the US and served federal prison time, apart from being charged for reckless driving.Judge Murphy ruled that Patel would be granted bond and he was not a flight risk or a danger to the community. He also did not have history of sexual assault, the judge added and referred to the surveillance footage that he did not flee Walmart and was not running away. As part of the bond conditions, Patel is not allowed to use drugs or alcohol and cannot contact the alleged victim or her family, or visit Walmart.
