Former Bollywood actress Mamta Kulkarni, named as an accused in the Rs 2,000 crore ephedrine drug haul case being probed by the neighbouring Thane police, today claimed that she was innocent.

“I am a yogini (ascetic). I am engaged in spirituality and it effects by activities since the past 20 years. I am innocent of the accusations against me,” Kulkarni, 44, said in a videotaped statement from Kenya’s Mombasa, where she is currently based.

“I have never engaged in any act contrary to the principles of Indian statutes and am a victim of high-handedness, crude, unprofessional and unethical conspiracy by the officers of the US’s Drug Enforcement Administration and the Thane police,” she said in her plea to the two Union ministers.

Mamta alleged that her image was being tarnished unnecessarily because of “my proximity to a certain individual”, she said.

Her Mumbai-based lawyer, Majeed Memon, said at the press conference that Kulkarni had written a letter to the Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju about her case.

Another lawyer, US-based Daniel Arshack, who was also present, said when the Indian government asked the Interpol to issue a red corner notice against her, the international agency refused, citing lack of evidence.

The lawyers’ team accused police of resorting to all foul means in the investigations with a view to sensationalise the highly exaggerated figure (Rs 2,000 crore), and are using her celebrity status to her disadvantage.

They claimed that the alleged contraband ephedrine is a controlled substance and the recovered substance is D-ephedrine which is a waste product with zero market value, proving that the entire probe is a sham and played out to please the US agencies.

Seen onscreen in the 1990s, Kulkarni paired with some of the top Bollywood actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar and others