ED Conducts Raids At Simran Preet Panesar, Accused In Canada's Biggest Gold Heist

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted a raid on Friday at the residence of Simran Preet Panesar, a 32-year-old man wanted across Canada in connection with the April 2023 gold robbery at the North American nation's Toronto Pearson International Airport.

A team of ED officials arrived at Panesar's home in Mohali's Sector 79 and began questioning him. The case falls under Section 2 (1) (ra) of the PMLA, which addresses cross-border crimes and the transfer of proceeds of such crimes to India, Indian Express reported.

A senior official told the English daily: "Any conduct by a person at a place outside India which constitutes an offence at that place and which would have constituted an offence specified in Part A, Part B or Part C of the Schedule, had it been committed in India and if such person [transfers in any manner] the proceeds of such conduct or part thereof to India".

Case Details

The heist occurred on April 17, 2023, when an air cargo container with over 22 million Canadian dollars worth of gold bars and foreign currency was stolen from a secure storage facility using fake documents. The shipment, which arrived on an Air Canada flight from Zurich, Switzerland, was offloaded and transported to a separate location on airport property before being reported missing the next day.

Canadian police have arrested six individuals, including people of Indian origin, in connection with the theft.

The stolen cargo included 6,600 bars of .9999 pure gold, weighing 400 kilograms and valued at over 20 million dollars and Canadian dollars 2.5 million worth in foreign currency, according to a report in PTI.

In an earlier statement, the police said that investigators seized one kilogramme of gold worth approximately Canadian dollars 89,000, believed to be from the theft, smelting equipment, and approximately 434,000 dollars in Canadian currency.