India’s search for missing loot from Toronto airport gold heist prevents alleged inside man from returning to Canada for trial

A man wanted for his alleged insider role in the high-value Toronto airport gold heist cannot return to Canada to face trial because Indian authorities won’t let him leave over suspicions he brought the loot to India to secretly sell, documents allege.

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Law enforcement and court documents from India, obtained by National Post, say Simran Preet Panesar is suspected of moving stolen gold or proceeds from it through businesses in India, where he has been living since resigning from his job with Air Canada after the heist.

Peel Regional Police, west of Toronto, consider him a wanted fugitive and allege he was an inside man who abused his position at the Air Canada cargo warehouse to pull off Canada’s biggest gold heist, in 2023, when a crate filled with nearly pure gold and foreign cash — worth more than $22 million — was stolen without anyone noticing shortly after arriving on a flight from Switzerland.

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Canada has requested Panesar’s arrest and extradition from India.

India’s Directorate of Enforcement, the country’s national enforcement agency for combating financial crimes, calls the 2023 theft “a sophisticated gold heist” and notes its connection to suspects of Indian origin who worked for Air Canada.

“Indo-Canadian employees Pampal Sidhu and Simran Preet Panesar played key roles in the heist,” alleges the document signed last year by two senior directorate officials based in Chandigarh, in India’s northwest.

“Simran Preet Panesar is in India and is suspected of laundering the stolen gold proceeds through various activities,” the report says. “It is suspected that a large portion of the stolen gold has been melted down and sold in markets that are flushed with gold, such as India or Dubai.

“Investigation is required to be conducted to ascertain the total proceeds of crime generated, layered, and integrated in the form of movable and immovable properties and identify all the persons/entities who is involved or knowingly assisted,” the directorate’s report says.

While Panesar is under investigation by the directorate for suspicion of money laundering he is prevented from leaving the country, according to an Indian court document.

As part of the directorate’s investigation, officers searched Panesar’s home in a suburb of Chandigarh and seized unspecified electronic devices and Indian currency valued around $3,000.

A lawyer in India representing Panesar filed petitions in court to end the directorate’s probe, seeking to quash authorizations for the search and the freezing of Panesar’s assets and requesting the return of seized items.

The lawyer complained that Panesar was interrogated eight times by directorate officers on eight different days over the course of nearly a month, starting Feb. 21, 2025, and ending March 18, 2025, without any charges being filed against him.

During proceedings, the directorate told court that a Look Out Circular, known as a LOC, had been issued against Panesar, according to the filing. A LOC is an internal alert for authorities to monitor, trace or prevent its subject from leaving or entering India.

The filing says that while the LOC is in place, “it is impossible for Mr. Panesar to travel out of The Republic of India.”

The outcome of Panesar’s petitions in India are not known. The lawyer did not respond to National Post’s requests for comment over several days.

Panesar’s lawyer in Canada, however, said the information found in the Indian documents is consistent with his understanding of his client’s situation.

Greg Lafontaine, a Toronto lawyer who represents Panesar in the gold heist case, said the Indian authorities’ actions prevent his client from appearing in court in Canada alongside co-accused who are scheduled to face separate trials, one starting Monday and the other next month.

Lafontaine said his client should not be viewed as a fugitive in hiding to avoid justice.

“If he’s hiding, he’s hiding in plain daylight,” Lafontaine said in an interview. “He’s in India. He’s always said he’s in India. We’ve never kept that back.”

Lafontaine said Panesar was in India working on a movie project. The directorate’s report said he is producing music videos with his wife and managing a recording business.

“We thought we had a little time to get his affairs cleaned up because he’d been doing things there. But suddenly the enforcement directorate of the Indian government has stepped in and commenced an investigation.

“That has caused him to be unable to leave India. He’s not here now to face the charges. He wants to be, but he’s not permitted to,” Lafontaine said. “He’s been stuck dealing with the Indian legal system ever since.

“He’s not a fugitive. He didn’t flee from anything. He was there, doing his thing for a period of months before the charges were laid. He’s been portrayed as actively avoiding coming to Canada, which is far from the truth.”

Insp. Mike Mavity, who was the major case manager for Peel police’s gold heist investigation, said Canadian law enforcement has been in periodic contact with India’s Directorate of Enforcement but said he could not confirm whether Panesar was being prevented from returning to Canada or not.

Mavity did dispute whether Panesar should be called a fugitive.

“I still consider him one. Panesar is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant,” Mavity said.

A trial is set to begin Monday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Brampton for one of nine men originally alleged to be behind the gold heist.

Parmpal Sidhu, 56, who worked at the Air Canada cargo warehouse along with Panesar, was arrested in Canada on April 5, 2024, almost two weeks before police announced arrests in the high-profile case.

Next month, a trial is scheduled for Archit Grover, 39, who allegedly owned the truck used to haul the shipment from the airport. Grover was arrested May 6, 2024, at Toronto airport after flying back from India.

Each is accused of conspiring with others to commit theft over $5,000, and of stealing gold and bank notes worth more than $5,000 that were the property of the Toronto Dominion Centre, the global headquarters for the TD Bank. Lawyers for both men say their clients are pleading not guilty.

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