Queens Couple Charged With Starving and Beating 12-Year-Old Daughter For Nearly Two Years

Anna Merlan

An Ozone Park, Queens couple has been arrested after their 12-year-old daughter told authorities about the abuse that she endured at their hands, including being isolated, beaten and starved down to just 58 pounds. Rajesh Ranot, 46, the child's father, and Sheetal Ranot, 31, her stepmother, are being charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child in the attacks on Maya Ranot. According to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, the little girl was been seen by emergency room doctors at least three times over the past year and a half. In one May, 2013 incident, emergency medical technicians found Maya lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, with the tendons to her left wrist cut to the bone after her stepmother allegedly attacked her with a metal broom handle.

Ranot is a yellow cab driver; city documents show that his license is active through the end of this year. The District Attorney's office believes that he and his wife began abusing Maya as far back as December 2012. The authorities say she was afraid to speak up, for fear that her four younger step-siblings would be taken away and put in foster care.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/08/rajesh_ranot_sheetal_ranot_richard_a_brown_new_york_city_administration_for_childrens_services.php