Parents of North Parramatta acid bath alleged victim won’t ever get chance to farewell her

The distraught parents of a high-flying teenager have revealed the promising life that lay ahead for their 19-year-old daughter before she was allegedly murdered in her home by her first boyfriend.

Abu Hayat, 41, and his wife Mahafuzer Akter, 39, told Daily Mail Australia they were struggling to cope with the horrific way their daughter had died – allegedly immersed inside a bath full of hydrochloric acid in the flat she shared with boyfriend, Meraj Zafar. 

The parents of the girl have recounted their daughter’s incredible success story, arriving from strife-torn Bangaldesh aged nine, learning fluent English and blitzing her HSC with a score of more than 97.

At the time of her death, Arnima had been pursuing her dream of studying medicine and had plans to become a surgeon and save lives. 

The parents of the Sydney teenager have revealed they will not be able to see their ‘daughter’s beautiful face’ before laying her to rest in Bangladeshi funeral tradition because the only part of the teenager’s body not destroyed was one of her feet.

‘I cannot see the last moment of my daughter’s face because of what was done,’ Mr Hayat said.

Arnima’s mother Mahafuza said ‘My beautiful daughter … my daughter, so pretty, I cannot see my daughter’s face.’  

Mahafuza (left) revealed the heartbreaking reason she will not be able r to properly lay to rest the remains of her daughter Arnima’s (right) whose body was discovered in a  full bath of hydrochloric acid in the flat she shared with her accused boyfriend

Arnima’s devastated parents Abu ans Mahafuza (above at their Sydney home on Wednesday) have revealed their daughter’s incredible life story before her tragic death aged 19

The parents of Arnima (left) say after Meraj Zafar (right) began dating their daughter she withdrew from them and that a clearly ‘upset’ 19-year-old she made a phone call to US relatives two weeks before her death

The dead girl’s uncle Abu Saleh said the family was ‘waiting to see my niece’s body (to get it back) from medical.’

Mr Saleh explained that in Bangladeshi tradition, it is customary for the family to see the face of the deceased after she is wrapped in a cloth shroud and in a profound act of worship the face is shown and the ‘dua’ or prayer is said before the person’s body is placed into the grave.

Police allege Meraj Zafar, 20, murdered Arnima either on Saturday, January 29 or the next day. 

Police responded to a triple-0 call around 4.30pm on Sunday to Pennant Hills Road, North Parramatta and made the grisly discovery inside the ground floor unit bathroom of Arnima’s remains in a hydrochloric acid in the bath.

Arnima’s family said they have been informed that it was Zafar’s mother who called emergency services to the flat. 

Just two weeks ago Arnima, a studious but fun-loving ‘Aussie girl’ who weekly took her parents out for sushi and pies until she ceased contact with them six months ago, rang relatives in the US sounding upset.

Arnima’s parents Mahafuzu and Abu (above, outside their Lakemba home) said their daughter was ‘an Aussie girl’ who loved KFC, sushi and pies and took her family out every week until she met Zafar

Arnima scored more than 97 in her HSC at Tempe High School before going on to study medicine at the University of Western Sydney and told her parents (above with Arnima) she planned to become a surgeon

Arnima’s parents Abu and Mahafuza (pictured together above) have revealed the incredible story of the talented teenager who arrvied as a 9-year-old migrant, blitzed her HSC and was training to be a surgeon

 ‘She told her uncle that he (Zafar) drank alcohol, but she did not want to because she was studying medicine,’ Abu Hayat said.

‘She wanted to be a surgeon and save lives.’

Arnima’s parents do not believe recent reports that their daughter had recently married Meraj Zafar.

The traumatised couple, who moved to Australia in 2009 when Arnima was nine years old, said Zafar had been Arnima’s first boyfriend and had convinced her to distance herself from her family.

‘And everyone, her girlfriends too she stopped seeing,’ said Mr Hayat who had an unpleasant confrontation with Zafar last year after the ‘big man’ began seeing his ‘small, sweet, very pretty’ daughter.

Arnima, who scored more than 97 in the HSC, went from being a normal, sociable teenager who regularly told her family how much she loved them to being withdrawn.  

Arnima’s uncle (left), father Abu (centre) and mother Mahafuza (right) are devastated about her death and how they have been robbed of right to bury her in proper Bangladeshi manner

Arnima (above with her younger sister) loved music, driving, make-up, shopping for pretty clothes and eating out with her family every week before she met Meraj Zafar

The Hayats say that once Arnima met Zafar (above, the couple together) she began to withdraw and after a confrontation between him and her father all contact ceased

Arnima’s shocked parents say police have told them their daughter’s body was allegedly immersed in a full bath of hydrochloric acid whcih destroyed all but one foot

 Mahafuza said her daughter ‘loved movies, music, she liked driving and shopping and buying pretty clothes. She loved make-up and she liked taking photos and selfies and videos’.

Arnima had gone to primary school in Marrickville, and then went to Tempe High School where she excelled in maths and was popular among her peers. 

Mr Hayat said his daughter quickly assimilated into Australia life, after moving to Sydney from Bangladesh and and became ‘very excellent’ in speaking English and wanted to eat ‘mostly western food’.

Police use an ultra violet light in the bathroom of ground floor flat where the remains of Arnima Hayat, 19, were found in the bath allegedly filled with hydrochloric acid

Police search through the bins beneath the North Parramatta apartment block where they made the grisly discovery on Sunday of 19-year-old Arnima Hayat

Arnima’s grieving parents can hardly contemplate the end their loving daughter came to in the bathroom of the ground floor flat she shared with Meraj Zafar for three months

‘She would say if I was going out ‘Babu buy some pies for me’. Babu is ‘father’ in our tradition,’ he said.

After graduating from Tempe High School, Arnima was admitted to the faculty of medicine at the University of Western Sydney.

Mr Hayat paid university fees for his daughter, who got a part-time job working at Kmart in Marrickville Metro shopping centre as a salesperson, two days a week.

Before meeting Zafar, each week Arnima would take her parents and her eight-year-old sister out to the shops and they would eat and shop together ‘like a normal family’.

‘Every week before she meet this guy, we go outside and have food and enjoy being a family. She loved KFC, iced coffee, ice-cream and Gong Cha tea,’ he said. 

The tragedy of Arnima Hyatt’s death came to public notice after police released this image of Meraj Zafar driving his Fuso tipper truck (above) and issued an alert

 Ms Akter said her daughter was ‘a little religious’, but did not wear a hijab and only wore a bright-coloured scarf or veil if she wore any head covering, because that was the style that Bangladeshi women adopted.

‘She liked movies, she loved music, She was fluent in English, I am not,’ Ms Akter said inside the family’s Lakemba home.

‘She was a very good girl. She was very good to her little sister. Her sister sees her on Tik Tok now and says ‘I love you, I love you my sister’.’

The Hayat family decided to move for a better life in Australia after Bangladesh endured periods of political and religious unrest.

Mr Hayat came first in 2006 and was followed by his wife bringing a young Arnima, with their second daughter being born in Australia. 

The Hayat family, above Arnima’s father, mother and uncle, are now faced with the propsect of burying the 19-year-old without properly being able to observe Bangladeshi funeral rituals

 Arnima was ‘loving and never any trouble’, Mr Hayat said, and then his daughter met Meraj Zafar, who is also Muslim, but his family is of Pakistani origin.

‘I do not know how they met,’ Mr Hayat said, but said he had one face-to-face confrontation with Zaraf and another on the phone.

When he sought advice from the police he was told ‘nothing can be done because they are in love’.

He said that his wife’s relatives in New York had told them that Arnima had said that ‘sometimes this guy is good’ but that she had experienced bad times with him.  Arnima’s relationship with Meraj Zafar  led her to cease contact completely with her family last October, the same time she moved  into the North Parramatta apartment with Zafar where she died.

Meraj Zafar (above, left) has been remanded in custody after being charged with the alleged murder of Arnima, (above, right) who was studying to be a surgeon and hoped to save lives

Mr Hayat said his daughter ‘also lost contact with her friends’ and that he and his wife were unable even to maintain contact by phone.

Since learning about the unimaginable tragedy which had befallen Arnima, the Hayat family has been in a state of disbelief, anger and grief.

Armina’s mother has spent the hours crying and praying in their Sydney home and waiting until the teenager’s body is released to them by the NSW Coroner’s Court for burial.

The family has been flooded with condolences from Bangladeshi relatives around the world, from Arnima’s work and university friends and a Tempe High School teacher had called to say the school wants to be present to farewell her.

Abu and Mahafuzer said Sydney’s Bangladeshi community would gather in forced to support them when they bury Arnima, but that they had not family in Australia other than themselves, their younger daughter and Abu’s brother. 

Arnima’s parents, Abu Hayat and Mahafuza Akter (above), came to Australia for a better life when their elder daughter was nine years old and said she had become an ‘Aussie girl’ who loved western food

‘We want her to be remembered as a kind and beautiful girl,’ Mr Hayat said.

‘I hope we will get justice.’ 

Arnima’s uncle Abu Saleh said the local Bangladeshi community had been rocked by the death of his niece.

Syed Zafar Hussain , the Editor-in-chief of Sada-e-Watan, Australia’s leading Pakistani newspaper, said the allegations about Pakistani Australian Meraj Zafar – who was born in Lakemba but whose family came from the Pakistani city of Sialkot – had shocked his community.

‘As a community leader, I can say that this tragedy does not reflect my community. No-one wants to believe this happened in the peaceful city of Sydney,’ he said. 

Meraj Zafar died not apply for bail and bail was formally refused in Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday and he was remanded in custody to appear  via AVL in Parramatta Local Court on April 5.

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