Key figure in Pearson gold heist says he’s having trouble testifying due to trauma
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
A man who admitted his role in the Toronto Pearson airport gold heist is telling the trial for another man accused in the case that recalling his alleged abduction in Pakistan on the stand is leaving him traumatized.
Arsalan Chaudhary was sentenced this spring to four years in prison after pleading guilty to theft over $5,000, and he was given 40 years to pay back $22 million in restitution.
He took the stand Tuesday in the Brampton, Ont., trial of Parmpal Sidhu, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of theft over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence in the 2023 heist.
Chaudhary says today he couldn’t sleep last night after testifying that he was kidnapped and abused in Pakistan by people who knew he had stolen gold and cash.
He says he has been kept at Maplehurst Correctional Complex for about three weeks, where he didn’t receive his prescribed medications including melatonin and vitamins.
Chaudhary told the court Tuesday that he’d planned the heist with another man who is still wanted by authorities, and he ended up taking 30 per cent of boxes full of one-ounce gold bars.
Prosecutors allege that Sidhu, an Air Canada employee at the time, provided a doctored waybill that allowed another man to pick up more than $22 million in gold and currency from a Pearson airport cargo bay.
Peel regional police have said 6,600 gold bars weighing more than 400 kilograms were stolen from the airport on April 17, 2023, after the shipment arrived from Switzerland.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 14, 2026.