The tragic case of Maya Ranot, a 12-year old child from Queens, who was found bleeding and cut to the bone on the floor of the kitchen in her father and stepmother’s home, would not have reached the serious proportions it did if authorities had done their job, indicates a Sept. 5 article in the New York Times.
That Maya was saved in the emergency room on May 6 is the bright spot in what could have been certain death. But the story of how she got there makes it clear that neighbors saw something amiss, that Maya told someone at her school about the abuse, and relatives are now talking when they should have acted in the years that led to the situation, the report entitled “Missed Signs In a Bloodied Girl’s Abuse Case” indicates.
Neighbors now say they saw Maya “shrinking” rather than growing; that she used to be sweeping outside the home while her siblings played.
Others say that the father Rajesh Ranot, 48, was aggressive about wanting his family to be left to their own devices; that a social worker was assigned to Maya’s case; that Maya’s biological mother often waited outside her child’s school to get a glimpse of her estranged daughter and give her some food to eat.
And Maya is speaking out as well – where she once denied abuse when questioned by police, she is now recounting a tale of horror that police believe, one of months and months of beating and abuse at the hands of her parents on allegedly trumped up accounts that Maya was a difficult child to control.
After Rajesh Ranot and Sheetal Ranot were charged this summer, the Administration of Children’s Services “claimed” it had rescued Maya, and the Commissioner for Children’s Services Gladys Carrion even praised ACS for its professionalism.
“But an examination by The New York Times found that what happened to Maya was far from an agency success,” the paper said. It noted that a city social worker had been watching Maya for a year – and did not act and that the child might easily have been on the roster of cases that ended in death because of “overlooked warning signs.”
Desi Talk in an earlier article questioned the child services agency and law enforcement authorities for not probing Maya’s early accounts further – for taking her denials of child abuse at face value.
“The Times’s investigation found that the agency made crucial missteps — most obviously, accepting what Maya said at face value, instead of interviewing everyone in her circle and gathering evidence,” the New York Times report now confirms. How is it that the social worker did not notice Maya’s significant weight loss – down to 58 pounds when she was rescued, but which was even further down to some 47 pounds while the case worker was in touch? Also, a detective who was called in on the case in April, was not told that Maya had told classmates of the abuse.
The Times piece reveals how Maya landed up with her father and stepmother rather than with her biological mother Ramona Roy back in 2011, following a custody dispute, where Rajesh Ranot “fabricated” charges that Maya was abused by Roy.
Maya’s photo is not available but The Times says neighbors describe her as having blue-green eyes and fair skin. One neighbor, Bematie Singh originally from Guyana, who saw Maya always dirty, disheveled and doing chores, told The Times, “I was told this is normal — stepmothers don’t like stepkids in India. Maya was like the maid.”
An aunt, Nisha Ali-Lalloo told the paper that she had slipped Maya $1 once and told her everyone loved her. After that Rajesh Ranot allegedly warned Ali-Lalloo’s husband he would take out a court order banning them from meeting Maya, and moved her out of that school.
The Times report brings to light what was easily available information for social services and law enforcement. It also brings out the fact that many people who realized there was abuse going on did not act or inform authorities, possibly because a case worker was already assigned.