How brain mapping and forensic tests led to arrest of PU Professor in wife’s murder case
Babushahi Bureau
Chandigarh, December 9, 2025: After a painstaking investigation spanning over five years, Prof BB Goyal, a senior Panjab University professor who teaches at the University of Business School, has been arrested in connection with the murder of his wife, Seema Goyal.
Advanced forensic procedures, including Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature (BEOS) testing, polygraph examinations, and psychological assessments, played a key role in unraveling the mystery.
Seema Goyal was found dead in her PU residence on November 4, 2021, with her limbs tied and clear signs of strangulation. Investigators were immediately puzzled: there was no forced entry, the main door was locked from outside, and mesh panels on both bedroom and kitchen windows had been cut from inside. Adding to the mystery, Seema’s mobile phone was missing, and her call logs revealed it had never left the campus area.
Prof Goyal, a respected academic, initially told police he had been asleep on the first floor when the couple’s milkman alerted him in the morning. By the time police arrived, he had moved Seema’s body to a hospital—a move investigators later said disturbed critical evidence. Over time, inconsistencies in his statements raised further suspicion.
The investigation faced several hurdles. On December 7, 2021, the UT police requested a narco-analysis test to extract truthful statements from Prof Goyal.
However, in March 2022, a forensic lab in Gujarat declared him medically unfit due to asthma. Both he and their daughter, Parul, later underwent polygraph tests, but irregularities led police to conduct further assessments—Parul underwent a forensic psychological evaluation in March 2025, while Prof Goyal underwent BEOS testing in July 2025.
BEOS, a cutting-edge forensic tool, detects whether an individual has direct experiential knowledge of a specific incident, unlike traditional lie detection methods. Analysis of Prof Goyal’s BEOS results, when combined with other forensic evidence, revealed critical insights into the sequence of events on the day of the murder.
“Following the BEOS results, it became evident that Prof Goyal was the key person of interest,” SSP Kanwardeep Kaur was quoted saying.
. “The test allowed us to uncover memory-based evidence that other methods could not. Coupled with inconsistencies in statements, missing mobile phone logs, cut window meshes, and lack of stolen valuables, our team had strong grounds for arrest.”
Over the years, family members alleged that tensions in the household stemmed from the couple’s interfaith marriage.
They claimed Prof Goyal frequently harassed Seema, and their daughter had noted that the couple had a heated argument a day before the murder. These factors, combined with forensic evidence, ultimately shaped the investigation.
On December 8, 2025, police finally arrested Prof Goyal from Panjab University, marking a major breakthrough in one of Punjab’s most high-profile murder cases.