Sameer Sahib says that his estranged wife Sofina Nikat, who has been charged with the toddler’s murder, had been blocking his calls for six months but telephoned him out of the blue last week to ask him to visit his daughter.
“She just said it’s been a long time, come see her,” he told The Herald Sun.
Four days later, the little girl’s body was found in a nearby creek. Sahib says he hasn’t been able to eat or sleep since he discovered Nikat – who he separated from a year ago, when Sanaya was just weeks old – had been charged.
“I just feel sick in my stomach,” he said.
He is now organising a funeral for his daughter.
Nikat, 22, was charged with Sanaya’s murder on Tuesday afternoon and made “full confessions” to police.
Police have since released CCTV footage showing a woman pushing a baby in a pram towards the creek where the body was found, then returning with an empty pram.
Nikat had originally claimed a barefoot man “smelling strongly of alcohol” had snatched Sanaya from her pram.
