EXCLUSIVE:
The Hayats have been the mannequin migrant household.
They arrived in Australia from Bangladesh with large desires of a vivid new life Down Beneath – till all of it ended by the hands of an unspeakably evil killer.
Abu Hayat and his spouse Mahafuza Akter constructed a vivid future for themselves and their two youngsters in Sydney, with a flourishing butcher store and a contented household house.
By no means-before-seen household portraits chart the milestones of their transition to changing into proud true blue Aussies, together with the second they grew to become residents.
Eldest daughter Arnima, 19, was the sunshine of her dad and mom’ lives they usually burst with pleasure when she was accepted into medical college to coach to turn into a physician.
Then she met Meraj Zafar, and all the pieces modified.
None of their lives would ever be the identical once more – and Abu would remorse ever bringing his household to Australia.
Arnima, her sister and their father Abu turn into Australian residents (above) when the household was completely satisfied and profitable earlier than their lives have been ruined by her tragic and grotesque homicide
Arnima Hayat (above) with the person who would homicide her, Meraj Zafar, who had strangled her to the purpose of unconsciousness a minimum of as soon as earlier than he killed her and immersed her physique in acid
Arnima (left along with her mom Mahafuza, and proper along with her little sister) had a contented household life, beloved Australia and had a promising future earlier than violent controlling Meraj Zafar murdered her and destroyed her household
Like {the teenager} she was, Arnima fell head over heels with Zafar, a highschool dropout who had reworked from skinny teen to a pumped-up musclebound thug.
She moved in with him. She fell pregnant to him. She even secretly married him. And she or he grew to become more and more remoted from her loving household due to him.
However when she lastly determined she needed to return to the security of her household fold in January 2022 , savage Zafar murdered her, smothering or strangling her to demise.
The precise technique won’t ever be identified as a result of he then dumped her lifeless physique in a shower of acid and dissolved each final little bit of her, besides one foot.
He was caught on CCTV as he drove to Bunnings, twice, to purchase 5 20-litre kegs of hydrochloric acid he used to destroy his former lover’s stays so horrifically.
The heartbreak her household needed to cope with was unimaginable.
However their torment was solely simply starting. Within the two years since, they’ve now misplaced all the pieces, and endured horrible grief, monetary collapse and critical psychological trauma.
They misplaced their thriving Lakemba butcher store as a result of Arnima’s fearful mom couldn’t keep at house alone, and suffered from PTSD.
At one stage, the once-prosperous household needed to depend on authorities meals parcels to outlive.
The couple, who’re nonetheless of their early 40s, have one other daughter to assist, however Ms Akter instructed Each day Mail Australia this week that because the homicide: ‘Every part is gone.’
Arnima’s father cannot even work on the butcher’s agency he joined after his personal store closed down within the wake of the tragedy, following a critical hand harm.
Mr Hayat says his household is ‘now damaged’ and that Arnima’s homicide made him remorse ever having moved to Australia.
Zafar’s torture of the household has continued even after Arnima’s homicide, with the killer refusing to confess his guilt for years till simply days earlier than his trial was because of begin.
Final week he lastly admitted her homicide – and an earlier menace to kill her – after dragging out authorized proceedings for 2 years.
Now new particulars have emerged concerning the couple’s doomed relationship which was to finish so brutally.
Classmates of college dropout Meraj Zafar have been astonished to see how the ‘skinny child’ had massively bulked up since getting expelled. Above Arnima Hayat with Meraj Zafar, who started assaulting her a minimum of 10 months earlier than he killed her
Arnima (above aged about 10) along with her dad and mom Abu and Mahafuza in a 2013 picture alongside which somebody wrote ‘Completely happy household, keep completely satisfied’
Each father or mother’s dream
Arnima was a contented younger girl, a proud Australian and an aspiring surgeon when she met Zafar, her first boyfriend.
He was a failure, having been expelled from two Sydney excessive faculties and was a drug taker and alcohol drinker who tried to pressure Arnima to do each, which created battle when she refused.
Arnima was born in Dakar, Bangladesh in 2003, and by 2006 her father had moved to Australia and begun working to achieve his momentary residence visa to deliver out his household.
‘After I left her in Bangladesh [and came to Australia], she would name me and say, ‘Dad, when are you going to take me to Australia? Dad, when are we going to Australia?’,’ Mr Hayat mentioned ‘I instructed her, ‘I’ll take you very quickly’.’
Arnima was 9 years previous when she arrived along with her mom, the younger woman fast to be taught English and assimilate into Australian life.
As a toddler, Mr Hayat mentioned, Arnima was each dad and mom’ dream – all the time ‘superb, very proficient and trustworthy, well mannered and delicate … generally naughty and would prank us.
‘Nevertheless, she had a lot love in direction of us’.
Arnima attended Tempe Excessive Faculty, the place she excelled in maths and was in style amongst her friends. She graduated with an HSC rating of 97 and was accepted into the College of Western Sydney college of medication.
Mr Hayat paid his daughter’s uni charges, in addition to the $7000 a month hire on his butcher store which prided itself on its ‘highest quality 100 per cent Halal meat’.
Arnima was good, devoted to her research and was on her technique to changing into a physician when she was tragically murdered by her first boyfriend who had estranged her from household
Mera Zafar’s huge arms and chest appeared to have shrunk by the point he appeared in courtroom to plead responsible to stalking Arnima’s father and has a lifetime AVO out towards him
In distinction with dropout Meraj Zafar who she wed in a doomed marriage, Arnima (above along with her dad and mom after getting an HSC rating of 97) was good, achieved and dealing to realize her intention of changing into a physician
Faculty dropout expelled twice
The son of a Pakistani-born taxi driver, Zafar attended Malek Fahd Islamic Faculty within the working-class western Sydney suburb of Greenacre.
Arnima obtained a part-time job working at Kmart in Marrickville Metro buying centre as a salesman, two days every week.
She was a standard, sociable teenager till she met Zafar, and commenced withdrawing from household and mates, the Hayats mentioned.
He was expelled and moved to Belmore Boys Excessive Faculty in 2018, the place he repeated 12 months 11 and was expelled once more, by no means ending his HSC 12 months.
One former classmate mentioned Zafar’s pumped-up physique when he was arrested made him virtually unrecognisable from the as soon as slight teenager.
However at a courtroom look final 12 months, Zafar appeared to have misplaced the cumbersome look he sported in pictures with Armina earlier than her demise.
Killer’s lethal threats
In 2021, the builder’s labourer had a fiery argument with Mr Hayat after turning up on the household house on the night of October 8.
Zafar mentioned he meant to marry Mr Hayat’s then-18-year-old daughter, and Abu requested a gathering with the younger man’s dad and mom first.
An argument broke out, and Arnima and her ‘fiancé’ then went to a Hayat household pal and neighbour’s flat.
By the evening that Arnima (above along with her sister) was murdered by Meraj Zafar she already hated him and was seeking to go away the connection though she was pregnant
At about 8.45pm, Mr Hayat began receiving calls from an unknown quantity, and on answering the fourth name heard his daughter’s ‘offended’ boyfriend ‘begin abusing’ him ‘and making threats of hurt’.
Mr Hayat instructed Each day Mail Australia that this included threatening to kill him.
Zafar mentioned to Mr Hayat: ‘Are you a person or are you a woman? Why cannot you decide? I desire a determination rapidly.’
Two hours later, Mr Hayat attended Campsie police station, the place police instructed him Zafar had admitted he did swear and abuse the older man over the telephone.
Police charged Zafar with stalking and took out an Apprehended Violence Order on Mr Hayat’s behalf.
Arnima married Zafar in a secret Islamic ceremony in October 2021, and moved right into a rented flat on Pennant Hills Highway, North Parramatta.
A distraught Mr Hayat would later say the AVO had truly legally prohibited them from repairing their relationship with their daughter or remaining involved.
Neighbours mentioned they usually heard music being performed within the floor ground flat the place Arnima lived with Meraj and their pet cat.
Abu Hayat, his arm round his youthful daughter, at Rookwood Cemetery in February 2022. Arnima’s uncle mentioned the little woman was having bother understanding that ‘Arnima isn’t any extra’
Arnima’s stays inside a inexperienced coffin are carried into Rookwood Cemetery simply over every week after {the teenager}’s physique was discovered dissolved in a shower of acid, with just one foot recognisable
Arnima referred to as kinfolk within the US ‘sounding upset’ in mid-January and instructed her uncle that he (Zafar) drank alcohol and needed her to, however she didn’t wish to disrupt her life or her research.
Pregnant and set to flee
On the evening of January 29, 2022, a Saturday, Arnima despatched a determined message to a male pal. She was pregnant and regretted marrying Zafar.
‘I’ve no one besides you,’ Ms Hayat wrote, with the pal replying, ‘You’ve got no selection. You need to stick with him.’
In a last message to her pal at 9.10pm, Ms Hayat wrote: ‘No, I hate him.’
These harrowing particulars solely emerged final week, after Zafar made a last-minute confession to the homicide as he was because of face trial within the NSW Supreme Courtroom.
The police info state Zafar arrived again on the flat that evening with groceries at 8.15pm.
Inside 45 minutes, within the time between Arnima’s last textual content and Zafar leaving the flat at 9.55pm, he murdered his younger spouse ‘by making use of compression to her neck and/or smothering her’, the info state.
Zafar later instructed a pal he had argued along with his spouse, that their relationship was ‘poisonous’ and that she had scratched him earlier than he killed her. He returned to Pennant Hills Highway at 1am on January 30.
At 10.24am on the Sunday, Zafar drove his white Mitsubishi Fuso work truck to Bunnings in Northmead, a brief 3km drive, and acquired a 20-litre keg of hydrochloric acid.
Overcome with grief, Mahafuza Akter collapsed at her daughter’s graveside the place she was helped by household and members of Sydney’s Bangladeshi group
The Hayat’s youthful daughter watches on after Mahafuza fell to her knees on the graveside of her daughter Arnima, 10 days after {the teenager} was murdered by Meraj Zafar
Acid bathtub horror
Again on the flat, Zafar ‘decanted the hydrochloric acid into the bath within the unit and moved the physique of Ms Hayat into the bath … in an try to eliminate Ms Hayat’s stays,’ the info state.
He returned to Bunnings that afternoon and purchased 4 extra 20-litre containers of acid and poured them into the bath.
The info reveal that Zafar searched on the web, ‘Can hydrochloric acid burn by way of pores and skin?’ and, ‘What number of years do you get in Sydney for homicide?’
Zafar additionally referred to as his mom and mentioned that he had fought along with his spouse, and he or she was not respiratory.
She suggested him to ring an ambulance however he refused, saying: ‘The police will get me and they’re going to put me in jail.’
‘The offender additionally requested his mom how a lot a ticket to go abroad was,’ the info state.
Zafar’s mom referred to as emergency providers to the unit.
When police compelled entry into the condominium, they found Ms Hayat ‘mendacity face down along with her face hidden and contorted in half’ with ‘a powerful chemical odour within the air which was overwhelming’.
NSW Hearth and Rescue officers have been compelled to put on Hazmat fits to enter the lavatory, discovering solely one in all Arnima’s toes remaining undestroyed.
Zafar had fled the scene.
‘Police evacuated the condominium because of the hazardous high quality of air emitting from the enclosed confined rest room,’ the info state.
Picture of Meraj Zafar in his work truck when he fled the flat the place he had positioned Arnima’s physique into a shower he stuffed with 100L of hydrochloric acid to dissolve her stays
The window (left) on the lavatory the place Arnima’s physique was positioned in acid, creating such poisonous fumes emergency employees needed to don hazmat fits to retrieve her stays
Police issued an outline of a needed man ‘175cm-180cm tall, 80kg-90kg with a muscular/athletic construct, black hair, a brief beard and moustache’.
They mentioned the person ‘could have scratches on his face and arms’.
‘I simply killed somebody’
In response to the info, whereas on the run, Zafar instructed a pal: ‘I married this woman final 12 months, her dad and mom did not like me. I married her to have children.
‘I simply killed somebody, I swear to God that I killed somebody.’ He then laughed.
It has just lately emerged that Arnima had beforehand complained to mates about her husband’s violence, however didn’t report it to police.
In Might 2021, Zafar had put his palms round her neck and he or she grew to become unconscious, struggling bruising to her throat, chest, left wrist, left arm and thigh.
Two days after killing his spouse, Zafar handed himself into police.
At his first case point out at Bankstown Courtroom, his lawyer Mohamad Sakr confronted courtroom on his behalf, and mentioned outdoors to media that his consumer was ‘distraught’.
No physique to bury
Arnima’s household have been confronted with the terrible prospect of burying their daughter, and never even having a correct physique to bury.
When the forensics lastly launched Arnima’s stays, the Hayats needed to forego the Bangladeshi funeral custom the place household view their beloved one’s face earlier than laying them to relaxation within the floor.
Mahafuza Akter (above with Arnima) has PTSD and fears being alone since her daughter’s grisly homicide from which the household has not recovered
Arnima (above in a photograph from her social media account) and (proper along with her mom and sister) had efficiently assimilated into Australian life after emigrating aged 9 and had a promising future
With solely her foot remaining, Mr Hayat mentioned they might not be capable to see their ‘daughter’s stunning face’ earlier than laying her to relaxation.
‘I can not see the final second of my daughter’s face,’ he mentioned.
As a substitute, Arnima Hayat’s stays have been wrapped in blue fabric and a white shroud to be seen and touched by members of the family at a ritual farewell at Lakemba mosque, earlier than her burial at Rookwood Cemetery.
On the invitation of Arnima’s household, Each day Mail Australia recorded the service honouring her life, at which Sydney’s Bangladeshi group spoke of their pleasure within the younger medical pupil and the intense future which had lain forward.
Arnima’s shattered mom Mahafuza collapsed by the graveside as she mentioned her final goodbye and needed to be held up by kinfolk as she sobbed, rocking on the spot, in a gut-wrenching show of emotion.
Arnima’s dad and mom, Abu, left, Mahafuza, centre and her uncle Abu Saleh within the household’s flat within the days after her horrific demise on the hand of her first boyfriend, Meraj Zafar
The toilet the place Meraj Zafar positioned his younger spouse into the bathtub and poured 100L of acid over her earlier than fleeing from the premises within the wake of Arnima Hayat’s grisly homicide
Arnima’s uncle Abu Saleh instructed round 60 mourners: ‘We farewell our stunning daughter, without end to reside in our hearts.’
He mentioned {the teenager}’s eight-year-old sister was nonetheless struggling to absorb the horrific demise and ‘was not believing that Arnima isn’t any extra’.
Courtroom showdown
Two months later, in April 2022, the deeply traumatised couple went to Bankstown courtroom on Friday to face the person accused of murdering their daughter at a listening to set down for the AVO and stalking cost.
It did not go forward as a result of no briefed lawyer turned as much as symbolize Zafar, and the Justice of the Peace was compelled to adjourn the case for a 12 months, sending Mahafuza right into a flood of tears.
‘I can not wait one other 12 months,’ she mentioned because the household agreed to simply accept authorities meals parcels to outlive.
‘They want justice for Arnima, however their struggling interferes with working a enterprise,’ supporter Sultana Akter instructed Each day Mail Australia.
‘They do not find the money for to pay the hire. They’ve had no monetary assist.’
Final 12 months, Meraj Zafar pleaded responsible to stalking Abu Hayat and obtained a five-month sentence, in addition to a lifelong AVO to not method Mr Hayat or any of his deceased spouse’s household.
He can be sentenced for Arnima Hayat’s homicide on August 5.
