A man accused in what investigators have called one of the largest gold heists in Canadian history stood trial in Brampton on Monday. Parmpal Sidhu, a former Air Canada cargo warehouse worker, pleaded not guilty to charges of theft over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence in connection with the April 17, 2023 theft of 6,600 gold bars and foreign currency valued at more than $20 million from Toronto Pearson International Airport.
The trial opened just weeks after the Crown dropped its cases against two other accused men: Toronto jeweller Ali Raza, who had been accused of knowingly receiving some of the stolen gold, and Amit Jalota. Another man, Arsalan Chaudhary, admitted his role and was sentenced this spring to four years in prison, with 40 years to pay $22 million in restitution.
Peel Regional Police, who dubbed their probe Project 24K, say the gold and currency had arrived from a Zurich refinery aboard an Air Canada flight and were offloaded to the airline's cargo facility, where a suspect presented a fraudulent airway bill and workers loaded the shipment onto a five-tonne truck.
Sidhu's trial is expected to run two to three weeks. A second accused, Archit Grover, who allegedly owned the truck used in the heist, faces a separate trial later this fall after both men switched from jury trials to judge-alone proceedings.
