ED raids on Panesar, key suspect in Canada’s biggest gold heist
An official familiar with the development said “our team is conducting raids at Panesar’s residence in Mohali in our money laundering probe
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday raided the residence of Simran Preet Panesar, key suspect in Canada’s biggest-ever gold heist, in Mohali, two days after the federal agency registered a money laundering case in the crime which took place on foreign soil.
An official familiar with the development said “our team is conducting raids at Panesar’s residence in Mohali in our money laundering probe. He will be questioned”.
HT exclusively reported on February 19 that ED has launched a Prevention of Money Laundering Act probe by invoking a section 2 (1) (ra) of the act that allows it to take up cases of cross border implications, where the crime has been committed by an Indian abroad.
The financial crimes probe agency, without any request from Canada, has suo motu registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR, which is ED’s equivalent of first information report) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) into a 22.5 million Canadian dollars (CAD) heist from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport in April 2023.
Also Read: ED launches probe into gold heist in Canadian territory
The idea, officers aware of the matter said, is to investigate if the gold or its proceeds made its way to India.
On April 17, 2023, an air cargo container carrying gold bars was stolen from a secure storage facility using fake paperwork. The stolen cargo contained 6,600 bars of .9999 pure gold weighing 400kg, valued at over 20 million CAD, and foreign currency worth 2.5 million CAD.
The gold and currency arrived on an Air Canada flight from Zurich, Switzerland, to the Pearson International Airport in Toronto. The gold bars belonged to a precious metals refining company in Switzerland and were destined for a bank in Toronto. Shortly after the flight landed, the cargo was offloaded and transported to a separate location on airport property. A day later, it was reported missing to the police.
The Peel Regional Police (PRP), which described the theft as the largest gold heist in Canada ever, charged Panesar and eight others in April 2024, and issued an arrest warrant against him. He and another accused, Parampal Sidhu, lived in Brampton and worked at the airport’s warehouse facility.
It was disclosed by PRP in 2024 that Panesar even gave a tour of the warehouse facility to the cops after the heist. While Sidhu was arrested by the Peel Police in May 2024, Panesar went missing.
The Canadian authorities are yet to recover the gold. Out of stolen cargo, only 90000 CAD is learnt to have been recovered by PRP.