Gifted medical student Arnima Hayat moved to Australia from Bangladesh with her family when she was nine. She dreamed of being a surgeon one day and her parents had moved countries to give her the best opportunities in life.
But after meeting her first boyfriend, Arnima, 19, found herself trapped in an abusive marriage with a baby on the way. Just four months into the marriage she was scared and desperate to leave her husband. As a young girl, Arnima had quickly fitted into her new life in Australia, where her parents established a thriving butcher’s shop.
She became an Australian citizen and perfected her English. She discovered a love of sushi, iced coffee and make-up, and she was also hardworking, ambitious and wanted to help people. Her parents had another daughter and Arnima was close to her, even though she was 11 years younger.
Arnima’s parents were full of pride when she secured a place studying medicine at Western Sydney University. They worked hard to pay the fees and she got a part-time job at a shopping centre to help.
But then she met Meraj Zafar, 20, and her world started to spiral. The apprentice builder had been a skinny high school dropout before he bulked himself up at the gym. He towered over Arnima and, right from the start of their relationship, her family were concerned about how he was trying to control her. Zafar would try to get Arnima to drink alcohol and there were rumours he was a drug user. Arnima had always been close to her family, but started to pull away under his influence.
In May 2021, Zafar went to Arnima’s dad, Abu Hayat, and asked for permission for them to marry. Abu was reluctant and asked to meet his parents. Zafar was furious and shouted. Later he phoned Abu a few times, swearing and being abusive. “Are you man or a lady?” he yelled. “Why can’t you make a decision?”
A concerned Abu went to the police. Zafar admitted making the calls and was issued a form of restraining order.
In October 2021, the couple married secretly in a private Islamic ceremony with no friends or family. They were living together in a flat in the Sydney suburb of North Parramatta and became even more isolated.
Previously, Arnima would tell her family what she was doing, but she stopped phoning. The teenager who’d loved music and shopping suddenly became withdrawn as she entered her second year of studies.
By January 2022, Arnima was very unhappy and pregnant. While she hadn’t gone to the police, she had told friends that Zafar was abusive.
She would have to ask permission to leave the house and he’d call her a “dumb bitch”. She admitted that he’d once strangled her until she was unconscious after thinking she’d been seen with another man.
Arnima sent him messages begging him to allow her to leave. “I just don’t want to say this to your face because I’m scared you’re going to bash me again,” she wrote. “I don’t want a son like you.”
Zafar replied, “Baby, you need to let go of the past – whatever I did was not me at all.” But Arnima confided in friends that he was jealous and controlling. She regretted the marriage and was thinking about going to the police but was scared about what Zafar might do.
On 29 January, Arnima sent a text to a friend saying, “I have nobody except you,” and said she wanted to leave. The friend replied, “You have got no choice. You have to stay with him.” Arnima responded at 9.10pm, saying, “No, I hate him.” It would be the last time anyone would hear from her.
The next day, Zafar’s mother called the police to say her son had admitted to having a fight with Arnima and wasn’t sure if she was still breathing. Zafar had queried how much a ticket overseas would cost.
Officers went to the flat and broke in. Straightaway, they were overpowered by a strong chemical smell coming from the bathroom. They put on hazmat suits and discovered a gruesome scene. The bath was filled with hydrochloric acid and there was a body lying face down. The body was so badly decomposed from the acid that the remains had to be identified through DNA. It was Arnima.
Zafar and his white work truck were missing and he was the prime suspect. An image of him was released to the police and 20 hours later he handed himself in.
The police pieced together the timeline and concluded Arnima had been killed just 45 minutes after sending her last message to her friend. Zafar had left the flat at 9.55pm and by then Arnima was dead.
CCTV footage from the following morning showed Zafar driving his work truck to a home improvement store, where he bought 20 litres of hydrochloric acid. He would later return to buy another 80 litres. While he denied it, it was determined that he had killed Arnima and was trying to get rid of the body.
Zafar’s internet history revealed he had searched “Can hydrochloric acid burn through skin?” several times before he bought the acid. He’d also searched, “How many years do you get in Sydney for murder?”
Arnima’s parents and her eight-year-old sister were devastated. They couldn’t even see her one last time because the acid had destroyed her body. It also meant their tradition of having an open coffin at her funeral was impossible.
In May 2024, Zafar pleaded guilty. The judge said he had murdered his wife by “obstructing her breathing or smothering her” then he had tried to dissolve her body in a bath of corrosive acid.
“He acted in such a way because of his anger and the prospect of Ms Hayat leaving him,” the judge said. “This was against a background of controlling and violent behaviour by the offender. The offence occurred in the home of Ms Hayat, where she was entitled to feel safe.”
In December 2024, Zafar, then 23, was sentenced. Arnima’s father said he had broken their family, their future and their hearts. “I miss my daughter every day and see her face in my dreams,” he said. “He burned the face I used to kiss every night. Can you imagine someone burning your child?”
Arnima’s mother, Mahafuza Akter, had her statement read for her by a support person. “There is no joy, no laughter, only suffering and pain. My tears are neverending and the deep ache in my heart never stops,” they read, adding that Arnima had been stolen from them and all the people she would have helped when she became a doctor.
Mahafuza said she would give anything to see her daughter’s face one more 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 and smell her.”
In a letter to the court, Zafar said he took full responsibility. “I don’t know how to begin to say how sorry I am for all that I have caused and all that I have affected through my actions,” he wrote. “It’s the most terrible thing to do to someone else.”
The judge noted Zafar only referred to Arnima as “his wife” rather than using her name, which was yet another example of how he believed he owned the young woman. Zafar was sentenced to 21 years and six months with a non-parole period of 16 years.
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