35-year-old Sheetal Ranot, an Indian-origin woman was found guilty of brutally abusing and starving her 12-year-old stepdaughter for more than a year and half in US, nydailynews.com reported.
On Friday, Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter sentenced Ranot to 15 years in prison.
A jury convicted her of first-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child in July this year.
Ranot’s stepdaughter Maya was repeatedly denied food and so severely battered on one occasion with a broken metal broom handle that her wrist was sliced to the bone and that injury required a lengthy hospitalisation and surgery.
In another intance, Ranot kicked the girl in the face while wearing footwear, causing bruising, swelling and substantial pain in her eye and face.
On another occasion, she struck Maya in the face with a wooden rolling pin causing a laceration, swelling and pain to her left cheek that required the girl to be treated at a local Queens hospital, where doctors found Maya to be underweight and thin.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Ranot was the “epitome of an evil stepmother”.
NY Daily News wrote Ranot not only refused to provide basic nourishment for the child but also “wantonly beat and abused the girl inflicting pain still evident by the scars that mark her body today. The youngster, at 12, weighed just 58 pounds. No child deserves to be treated in this manner.”
Maya is currently living with her biological mother, the news report said.
Father has been charged too
Maya’s biological father Rajesh Ranot has also been charged with assault, unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child and will be tried at a later date.
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