EXCLUSIVE
Abu Hayat was devastated as he walked out of the NSW Supreme Court after watching his daughter’s killer be jailed for what he thought was 22 years.
“I’m not happy with that sentence; 22 years is not enough,” he told Daily Mail Australia after taking the train back to Western Sydney. “I’m not happy.”
But Hayat was briefly left speechless when told that the man who murdered his beloved Arnima would probably only turn 16 and could be free as early as 2038.
Arnima was 19 years old and pregnant when Meraj Zafar strangled or suffocated her to death in their North Parramatta apartment after she tried to break up their violent marriage in January 2022.
A pathologist was unable to determine precisely how Ms Hayat died because Zafar had placed her body in a bath filled with hydrochloric acid in an attempt to dissolve her remains.
Hayat, born in Bangladesh, could not understand that someone would kill his eldest daughter, much less deny him the opportunity to see her face one last time, and then not have to face the harshest possible punishment.
Zafar was sentenced on Thursday to 21 years and six months in prison, but Hayat didn’t understand until Daily Mail Australia informed him that was only the maximum sentence he could serve.
Arnima Hayat (pictured with her parents) was an 18-year-old medical sciences student at Western Sydney University and had never had a boyfriend before.
Devastated father Abu Hayat thought his wife’s killer was going to prison for 22 years, but Meraj Zafar received a minimum sentence of 16 years for murdering 19-year-old Arnima Hayat.
Judge Deborah Sweeney set a much shorter non-parole period, which meant that, taking into account the time Zafar had already spent behind bars, he could be a free man in just over 13 years.
‘Oh really?’ Hayat said when he was told that Zafar would be eligible for parole in March 2038.
‘I cry again. Sixteen years old? Not 22? Sixteen years old?
Hayat understands that Australia does not have the death penalty, but believes Zafar should be executed for what he did to his daughter, as would happen in his home country.
“After her death, every day, every night, I miss my daughter,” Hayat said. ‘My heart is broken but we can’t do anything.
‘I lose everything. “It’s very difficult for me.”
Arnima had called her father “Dad” and he called her “Annie.”
The couple had been very close and enjoyed trips to malls together, with Arnima looking for dresses and wanting to order a double cheeseburger or sushi.
“She always says, ‘I love you dad.’ She’s 19 and says ‘I love you dad,'” he said.
“She always came to me: ‘Dad, one day, when I’m a doctor, I’ll make a lot of money and I’ll give you money.’ I’ll buy you a house. I’ll buy a BMW car. You’ll see.”
Hayat says she sometimes sees her daughter in the faces of other young women and regularly visits Arnima’s grave at Rockwood Cemetery.
Hayat, a medical sciences student, wanted to leave Zafar amid what a judge called his “controlling and violent behavior.” Judge Deborah Sweeney jailed Zafar for a maximum of 21 years and six months during a sentencing hearing in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday.
“Muslims say that if someone kills you, you go to Jannah, to heaven,” he said. ‘My daughter was murdered by her husband, she is in heaven.’
Judge Sweeney concluded that Arnima’s murder was objectively in the “middle range of seriousness”.
“The offender acted with reckless indifference to life by killing Ms. Hayat by obstructing her breathing by applying compression to her neck and/or suffocating her,” he said.
“He acted that way because of his anger at the prospect of Ms Hay leaving him and ending their marriage.
‘This was in a context of controlling and violent behavior on the part of the offender. The crime occurred in Ms. Hayat’s home, where she had the right to feel safe.
‘The offender did not undertake any significant planning or organization to kill Ms Hayat.
‘I also take into account his conduct in relation to his body after his death. Taking these factors into account, I assess the violation as medium severity.’
Mr Hayat had never liked Zafar, who married Arnima on October 13, 2021 in a private Islamic ceremony attended by members of neither of their families.
Mr. Hayat sometimes sees his daughter in the faces of other young women and regularly visits Arnima’s grave at Rockwood Cemetery. He appears barefoot next to Arnima’s grave after her funeral in February 2022.
She was an 18-year-old medical sciences student at Western Sydney University and had never had a boyfriend before. Zafar was a 20-year-old trader with a history of illicit drug use and excessive alcohol consumption.
Months before the wedding, Arnima had already complained to her friends about Zafar’s violence towards her and Zafar had quarreled with Mr. Hayat over the pending marriage.
On October 8, 2021, Zafar, who refused to allow Arnima’s parents to meet his own family, telephoned Mr. Hayat and told him: “I will kill you.” Mr. Hayat went to the police.
Over the next few days, Arnima collected her belongings from her parents’ house and had no further contact with them before she was murdered.
“I know this guy very poorly,” Hayat said. “But after marriage I don’t even know where they live.”
A month after the wedding, when the couple were in a rented apartment in North Parramatta, Arnima told a friend that Zafar had hit her and that she regretted marrying him.
Arnima texted her friend at 8.30 pm January 29, 2022, which reads: “I have no one except you.” Her friend replied: ‘You have no choice. You have to stay with him.
At 9:10 p.m., Arnima replied: “No, I hate him.” That was the last contact Arnima had with anyone other than Zafar.
Sometime before Zafar left the apartment at 9:55 p.m., he killed Arnima.
Arnima Hayat was just 19 years old and pregnant when her controlling husband Meraj Zafar strangled or suffocated her to death in their North Parramatta apartment in January 2022.
Abu Hayat was briefly left speechless when told that the man who murdered his beloved Arnima would probably only turn 16 and could be free as early as 2038.
The next day, Zafar returned to the apartment and late in the morning drove to a Bunnings store where he bought a 20-litre tub of hydrochloric acid which he put in a bath with Arnima’s body.
That afternoon he returned to Bunnings and bought four more 20-litre tubs of acid which he poured into the bathroom to dispose of Arnima’s body and hide how he had killed her.
Zafar called his mother and told her that his wife was not breathing but that he did not want to call an ambulance because “the police will put me in jail.” Then his mother called Triple-0.
When the police arrived and found Arnima’s body naked and face down in the bathtub, Zafar had fled the scene.
At 8.30pm that night, Zafar conducted four internet searches asking the question: “How many years do you get in Sydney for murder?”
Zafar turned himself in to police early the next afternoon and told the arresting officer: “I don’t want to do 20 years.” I thought, you know what? I have made a mistake. I have to do it.’
Arnima’s body was unrecognizable due to decomposition and her identity was only confirmed through DNA.
Zafar pleaded guilty to murder and in a letter to the court and Arnima’s family said he took full responsibility for his actions.
Judge Sweeney concluded that Arnima’s murder was objectively in the “middle range of seriousness”. In the photo appear his parents Abu Hayat and Mahafuzer Akter.
“I don’t know how to begin to say how sorry I am for everything I have caused and everything I have affected with my actions,” he wrote.
“It’s the most terrible thing you can do to another person.”
The 23-year-old said no one should be treated with violence or “thrown away” like Arnima had been.
“I hope one day you can forgive me,” he said. ‘Very sorry.’
Hayat addressed Zafar directly last month during a pre-sentencing hearing.
“You killed my daughter, you destroyed her future… you destroyed my family, you destroyed my heart,” he told the killer. “We lost our daughter and everything else.”
Hayat said she was unable to see her daughter one last time because the hydrochloric acid had disfigured her features.
“It burned the face I used to talk to every night, it burned her,” he said. ‘Can you imagine someone burning your child?
“He burned her and I will never be able to see her again.”
Arnima Hayat lived in this ground floor apartment for three months before she was murdered in January 2022.
Meraj Zafar was filmed in his work truck fleeing the flat where he had placed Arnima’s body in a bathtub which he filled with 100 liters of hydrochloric acid to dissolve her remains.
“Muslims say if someone kills you, you will go to Jannah, to heaven,” Hayat told Daily Mail Australia. ‘My daughter was murdered by her husband, she is in heaven.’ He appears photographed next to his daughter’s grave.
Hayat’s mother, Mahafuzer Akter, also gave a statement read by a Homicide Victim Support Group volunteer.
“My tears never end and the deep pain in my heart never stops, never stops, never stops,” she said.
“I cry day and night because they stole it from me.”
‘The dreams we shared for her future were everything a mother could want, and losing that dream has left a void that can never be filled.
‘What happens to her dreams now that she has been murdered, the dreams we built together? Moving to Australia was supposed to be the beginning of our dreams, not the end.’
Akter said her daughter had been murdered by the person who was supposed to love and “protect” her and that she would “give anything to see his face one last time.”
“Instead, I sit by his grave every Friday stroking the grass because I can’t stroke his hair anymore. I kiss and hug his headstone, wanting to hold it and smell it.”
Having completed the grieving mother’s statement, Judge Sweeney told her: ‘Mrs Akter, I am sorry for the loss of your beautiful daughter. You have my sympathy.
While on remand, Zafar served a five-month sentence for intimidating Mr Hayat and Judge Sweeney set the 16-year period to begin two months after he first entered custody.
Zafar will be eligible for parole on March 30, 2038.