A shopkeeper who murdered his pregnant wife and then tried to dissolve her body in an acid bath had stalked and threatened her father when he refused to give him permission to marry his teenage daughter.
Meraj Zafar, 22, pleaded guilty at the last minute this week to the murder of 19-year-old Arnima Hayat on January 29, 2022, in the North Parramatta unit they shared.
Only one foot remained of the aspiring doctor after Zafar murdered her and then attempted to dissolve her body in a bath of hydrochloric acid.
The facts of the case, heard in the NSW Supreme Court this week, reveal that Zafar killed his young wife by “applying compression to her neck and/or suffocating her”.
In January 2023, Zafar pleaded guilty to harassing Armina’s father, Abu Hayat, and threatening him over the phone during a conversation about marriage.
Armina’s devastated parents Abu (left) and Mahfuza Hayat (right) appear at their home in western Sydney. The couple had a life AVO against their daughter’s husband
Meraj Zafar, 22, pleaded guilty at the last minute this week to the murder of his wife Arnima Hayat, 19, on January 29, 2022, in the North Parramatta unit they shared.
The court heard that the construction apprentice got into a heated argument with Mr Hayat after turning up at his home on the night of October 8, 2021.
Zafar told Hayat that he intended to marry off his then 18-year-old daughter, and the older man requested to meet the tradie’s parents first.
When an argument broke out, Arnima and her fiancé went to the flat of a friend and neighbor of the Hayat family, Bankstown Local Court was told in January 2023.
At around 8:45 p.m., Hayat began receiving calls from an unknown number.
She answered the fourth call and her daughter’s boyfriend was “angry and started abusing” Mr. Hayat “and threatening to harm him.”
The court heard Zafar tell his girlfriend’s father: ‘Are you a man or are you a lady? Why can’t you make a decision? I want a quick decision.’
Two hours later, Hayat went to Campsie police station, where police told him Zafar had admitted swearing and abusing the older man over the phone.
Zafar received a five-month sentence, effective immediately, for the harassment charge.
He was also given a lifetime AVO not to approach Mr Hayat or any of his wife’s family, including his mother Mahfuza.
The couple married in a secret Islamic ceremony four months before his death.
Zafar told Mr. Hayat that he was marrying his 18-year-old daughter (pictured at her graduation photo) and became angry when he did not receive the older man’s blessing.
The facts of the case, heard in the NSW Supreme Court this week, reveal that Zafar (pictured) killed his young wife by “applying compression to her neck and/or suffocating her”.
Arnima Hayat’s traumatized family, uncle Abu Saleh (left), father Abu Hayat and mother Mahafuzah (right) said their daughter loved studying and had become a true “Australian girl”.
Hayat’s parents previously told Daily Mail Australia that their daughter was a studious but fun-loving “Australian girl” who took her parents out for sushi and pastries weekly until she stopped contacting them six months ago.
Mahafuzer said her daughter “loved movies, music, she liked driving, shopping and buying nice clothes.”
With many friends from school, her job at Kmart in Marrickville and Western Sydney University, she had a happy life before she started dating Zafar.
Arnima’s parents said she went from being a normal, sociable teenager who regularly told her family how much she loved them to being withdrawn.
Since October 2021, when Zafar and Arnima moved into a unit in Parramatta together, the family has not even received phone calls from her.
Arnima Hayat lived in this ground floor apartment for three months before she died in January 2022.
She had sent a desperate message to a friend on the night of her death.
“I have no one but you,” Hayat wrote to her friend.
He replied: ‘You have no choice. You have to stay with him.
In a final message at 9:10 p.m., Mrs. Hayat wrote: “No, I hate him.”
Within 45 minutes, her husband murdered her and drove to Bunnings in Northmead the next day to buy a total of 100 liters of hydrochloric acid.
Mr Zafar then poured acid over Ms Hayat’s body in a bathtub “in an attempt to dispose of her remains”, according to the facts of the case.
It was not the first time Zafar attacked his wife. In May 2021 he strangled her until she was unconscious after thinking that he had seen her with another man.
Zafar will return to court on August 5 for sentencing.
