ACWORTH, Ga. (Diya TV) — A Georgia father accused of attempting to abduct a toddler inside a Walmart is fighting to clear his name, saying surveillance footage disproves the allegations against him.
Mahendra Patel, 56, was arrested three days after an incident on March 18, when mother-of-two Caroline Miller, 26, claimed he tried to snatch her two-year-old son while she shopped with her children in a motorized cart. Patel, who has adult children of his own, says he was simply trying to help after noticing the child slipping from Miller’s lap.
Speaking through his attorney, Patel insists he never attempted to kidnap anyone and says Miller misinterpreted the situation. According to Patel, he asked Miller for directions to find Tylenol for his ailing 86-year-old mother, then instinctively reached out to steady the boy, who appeared to be losing balance.
“She answered his question, and while doing so, the boy was falling,” Patel’s attorney Ashleigh Merchant told DailyMail.com. “He grabbed him to stop him from falling. That’s it.”
Miller, however, told police a different story, alleging Patel distracted her and tried to pull her son away, leading to what she described as a “tug of war” over the child. She reported the encounter to a Walmart employee several minutes later and contacted police afterward.
Patel was arrested and booked into the Cobb County Jail, where Merchant says he has been subjected to threats from other inmates. “He’s not doing well,” Merchant said. “People in jail aren’t treated well if they’re accused of harming a child.”
Relatives of Patel, who only learned of the charges from media reports, have publicly defended him. “There’s no way he would ever do something like that,” a family friend told DailyMail.com, blasting Miller’s subsequent media appearances.
Surveillance footage reviewed by DailyMail.com appears to contradict Miller’s account. In video from 20 angles, Patel is seen briefly leaning toward Miller and her son, but no struggle is visible. Instead, after a short interaction, Patel steps back and walks away calmly. Moments later, he is seen paying for his items at checkout without any sign of urgency.
Miller, meanwhile, is seen smiling and chatting with another shopper shortly after the encounter, before backing into a product display. A bystander assists her with her children and belongings.
Despite the footage, Acworth police are standing by the arrest. Officer Eric Mistretta said the video shared by Patel’s attorney had been edited and was not the same as police footage. “The video released by the attorney does not show the entire incident,” he said. The department has declined to release its full footage to the public.
Questions have also surfaced about Miller’s credibility. Merchant noted that Miller has an ongoing 2021 lawsuit against Lyft, in which she alleges she was assaulted by a driver.
Meanwhile, Patel’s supporters have launched a Change.org petition calling for the charges to be dropped. “He is exactly the opposite of what he is accused of,” one supporter wrote. “The video evidence clearly shows he was helping the kid who almost fell.”
As of Wednesday, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office had not responded to multiple inquiries about whether the surveillance footage had been shown to a grand jury. Patel remains in custody as his family and attorney continue efforts to secure his release and clear his name.
