Atlanta GA: An Ozone Park, NYC couple, Sheetal and Rajesh Ranot, face a litany of child abuse charges – including multiple counts of assault and child endangerment – for allegedly starving and beating their now 12-year-old daughter between December 2012 and July 2014. In one instance, the child was allegedly hit with a broken metal broom handle that cut her wrist down to the bone and required hospitalization and surgery.
The couple is now out on bail. Sheetal Ranot (31) posted her $60,000 bail and was turned loose, shortly after husband Rajesh Ranot (46) was released on $25,000 bail for the relentless attacks on little Maya Ranot, reported New York Daily News.
The preteen weighed just 58 pounds when the 5-foot-3, 160-pound Sheetal, who is the child’s step-mom gashed the child’s wrist to the bone with a jagged metal broom handle in May, authorities said. When medical personnel arrived at the family residence, they found Maya lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen with the tendons to her left wrist cut to the bone. Maya was transported toElmhurstHospitalwhere she underwent surgery for her wrist and received stitches to her knee. At the time, doctors allegedly observed several bruises, marks and scars in various stages of healing throughout Maya’s body including bruises on her right scapular area, right ear and legs.
District Attorney Brown said, “The criminal charges allege that this young victim was
subjected to years of unspeakable physical abuse at the hands of her father and stepmother – including being locked in her bedroom by her stepmother without food or water for extended periods of time and forced to take cold showers while her father hit her about her body with his hands and even a baseball bat. Despite the bruising and scarring on her body which served as a silent testament to the violence and cruelty she purportedly endured, it is alleged that for a long time this emaciated child was fearful of disclosing the true nature of her injuries or those responsible for her suffering for fear that her younger step-siblings would be taken away by authorities and placed in foster care.
Fortunately, she found the courage to speak up.”
District Attorney Brown continued, “I want to thank the law enforcement and social service personnel involved in this case. Without their intervention, it is not too hard to imagine that this case would have ended in the child’s death.”
