Mum’s heartbreaking act after daughter’s murder
Written by admin on November 25, 2024
The mother of a pregnant woman murdered by her new husband before being doused in acid and left to rot in a bathtub has revealed her heartbreaking act as her killer faces sentencing.
Meraj Zafar, 20, appeared before Sydney’s Supreme Court on Monday for a sentence hearing after pleading guilty to murdering his wife of four months, Arnima Hayat.
Zafar murdered the aspiring doctor at their North Parramatta apartment on January 29, 2022 at the prospect of 19-year-old woman ending their turbulent relationship.
In a heartfelt victim impact statement, the young woman’s father, Abu Hayat, said he had been unable to see his daughter one last time because the acid had burned her body.
“He burned the face I used to talk to every night – he burned her. Can you imagine someone burning your child. He burned her, and I can never see her again,” he said.
Addressing Zafar, Mr Hayat said: “You killed my daughter, you broke her future … you broke my family, you broke my heart … We lost our daughter and everything else.”
In a statement delivered in court through a support person, the young woman’s mother, Mahafuza Akter, said her life fell apart the day her daughter was murdered.
“My tears are never ending and the deep ache in my heart never stops – never stops, never stops. I cry day and night because she was stolen from me,” Ms Akter said.
Weeping throughout proceedings, Ms Akter described Ms Hayat as a beautiful daughter and dedicated student who would have been a “fun-long and wonderful mother”.
“The dreams we shared for her future were everything a mother could hope for, and losing that dream has left a void that can never be filled,” Ms Akter said in her statement.
“What happens to her dreams now that she has been murdered, the dreams we built together? Moving to Australia was supposed to be the start of our dreams, not the end.”
Ms Akter said her daughter had been murdered by the person supposed to love her and “protect her” and that she would “give anything to see her face one last time”.
“Instead, I sit by her grave every Friday stroking the grass because I can no longer stroke her hair – I kiss and hug her tombstone, longing to hold her and smell her,” she said.
“Please come home, Amy. Please.
“I wish I could wake up from this nightmare and see you at home
“I don’t know how I ended up in this nightmare and everything went so wrong, but I knew he wasn’t a good man.
“She was murdered by the person who was meant to love her, murdered by the person who was meant to respect her, by the person meant to protect her, the person meant to father her child and start a family with, by the person who was supposed to make all her dreams come true.
“She should be home helping me make dinner … and doing her make-up, studying for her end-of-semester exams, having tea and chatting with her father – she should be home.”
Zafar married Ms Hayat, a Western Sydney University medical student in a secret Islamic ceremony in October 2021, but their relationship was marked by turbulence.
Police took out an apprehended violence order protecting Ms Hayat in May 2021 after an enraged Zafar put his hands around her neck after he believed she had been seen with another man.
Zafar bought 100 litres of hydrochloric acid from Bunnings at Northmead the day after her murder and placed the woman’s body in the bathtub to try to “dispose of he remains”.
Her body was only discovered after Zafar’s mother, whom he told that Ms Hayat was not breathing, called police. They found Ms Hayat naked and face down in the bathtub.
The hearing will continue on Monday.
