The Delhi Police on Tuesday said the forensic tests on the clothes of the Lady Shri Ram College students who alleged semen-filled balloons were hurled at them ahead of Holi showed no traces of semen or any chemical substance.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Romil Baniya told The Hindu that the Forensic Science Laboratory report said the balloons thrown at the women were filled with a coloured substance mixed with water. The police said the exact contents of the balloons are still being studied, PTI reported.

The police began investigation after many women students from Delhi University’s Lady Shri Ram College and Jesus and Mary College said in February that they were being targeted with water and semen-filled balloons ahead of Holi.

Every year, in the days leading up to Holi, women from across Delhi often report being hit by water balloons from rooftops and by men on bikes. A psychology student of the Lady Shri Ram College said on social media that she had just started for college from Amar Colony when a “liquid-filled balloon” hit her hip. “It dried white on my black leggings, and the foreign smell clearly indicated that it wasn’t water,” she wrote, adding that she did not know what it was until a friend told her “semen-flinging...was currently the Holi fad in the back market area”.

Soon, other students also reported being targeted in a similar way, prompting protests on the campus and resulting in the police stepping up their presence until the festival was over.