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Queens Woman Gets 15 Years in Prison for Beating, Starving Stepdaughter

By Ben Fractenberg | September 9, 2016 1:38pm | Updated on September 11, 2016 2:13pm
 Ozone Park woman Sheetal Ranot was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday for beating and starving her young stepdaughter.
Ozone Park woman Sheetal Ranot was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday for beating and starving her young stepdaughter.
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QUEENS — An Ozone Park woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for beating and starving her young stepdaughter, the Queens District Attorney announced Friday.

Sheetal Ranot, 35, started abusing then 10-year-old Maya Ranot in 2012, striking her in the face with a wooden rolling pin and not properly feeding her until the girl weighted just 58 pounds when she was 12 years old.

“The defendant was the epitome of an evil step-mother,” Queens DA Richard Brown said in a statement. “Not only did she refuse to provide basic nourishment for the child, but the defendant also wantonly beat and abused the girl inflicting pain still evident by the scars that mark her body today.”

Officials finally intervened in 2014 after the stepmother hit Maya with a broken metal broom handle, causing a deep laceration on the child’s left wrist that exposed her tendon.

Maya was taken to Elmhurst Hospital where doctors observed other bruises and scars on her body.

A jury found Sheetal, who lived on 96th Street, guilty of first-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Judge Richard Buchter sentenced her in Queens Supreme Court on Thursday.

Sheetal's lawyer called the ruling a "miscarriage of justice" and said he intends to file an immediate appeal. 

"She has always maintained her innocence," said Mahmoud Rabah in an email. "What hurt her the most was having her step-daughter, a girl she essentially raised, accuse her of things she never did."

Sheetal was acquitted on some assault charges and an unlawful imprisonment charge after "the jury struggled with the credibility of the prosecutor's witnesses," the lawyer added. 

Maya’s biological father, Rajesh Ranot, was also arrested and charged with assault, unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child.

He is due back in court on Sept. 12 for the start of his trial, according to public records.