‘Burned’: Bathtub acid killer faces victim’s family over wife’s murder

A man who murdered his pregnant wife and left her to rot in a bathtub of acid has apologised and asked for her family’s forgiveness after her mother broke down in tears in court. Meraj Zafar, 20, appeared before Sydney’s Supreme Court on Monday for a sentence hearing after pleading guilty to murdering his wife Arnima Hayat, 19, on January 29, 2022. The couple had been married for four months when Zafar murdered Ms Hayat at their North Parramatta apartment when faced with the prospect that the aspiring doctor might end their rocky relationship. In a letter addressed to the court and his victim’s family, Zafar said he took full responsibility for his actions. “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 in the letter read aloud in court. “It’s the most terrible thing to do to someone else.” The murderer said no one should be treated with violence or “discarded” in the way his wife had been. “I hope one day you can forgive me,” he said. “I am very sorry.” However, the Crown prosecutor emphasised that the letter of apology “does not afford Arnima Hayat of using her name” and instead refers to her as “my wife”. She argued his inability to recognise Ms Hayat’s value outside of her connection to him reflects his “possessive and controlling” conduct throughout their relationship. The letter of apology came after Ms Hayat’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,” Ms Akter said in a heartfelt statement read to the court. “I cry day and night because she was stolen from me.” Weeping throughout proceedings, Ms Akter described Ms Hayat in her statement as a beautiful daughter and dedicated medical 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.” The grieving mother said she would “give anything to see her (daughter’s) 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.” Ms Hayat’s father Abu Hayat said he had been unable to see his daughter one last time because of the damage from the acid. “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 told him: “You killed my daughter, you broke her future … you broke my family, you broke my heart … We lost our daughter and everything else.” Zafar bought 100 litres of hydrochloric acid from Bunnings in Northmead the day after murdering his pregnant wife, and placed her body in the bathtub to try to “dispose of her remains”. He married Ms Hayat 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 when he believed she had been seen with another man. Months later, Ms Hayat’s body was found naked and face down in a bathtub full of hydrochloric acid. She was only discovered after Zafar told his mother that she wasn’t breathing, and his mother called the police. “This is a clearly tragic case that a woman with so much promise, a medical student, has lost her life,” Zafar’s barrister told the court. He said the 20-year-old had “reasonable prospects of rehabilitation” and “is not a lost cause”. Zafar will be sentenced in December.