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The testimony of a key player in the Toronto Pearson airport gold heist has been adjourned until next week after he told a Brampton, Ont., court Wednesday that recalling details of his alleged abduction in Pakistan on the stand has left him traumatized.
Arsalan Chaudhary is serving a four-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to theft over $5,000 in what police have called one of the largest gold heists in Canadian history.
He took the stand Tuesday in the 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 testified that he’d planned the heist with Simran Preet Panesar, who is still wanted by authorities, and ended up taking 30 per cent of boxes full of one-ounce gold bars. He said he melted some of the gold and sold it for cash before travelling to Pakistan, where he claimed people in police uniforms kidnapped and abused him.
He said he believed the kidnappers learned he had money from a man who helped him procure his gold-melting machine. He said he was released after giving up the remaining gold he kept in a Greater Toronto Area condo and the cash he had at his cousin’s house in Pakistan.
When Chaudhary returned to the witness stand on Wednesday, he said he couldn’t sleep the previous night after telling the story of his abduction.
“My memory is very vague when I have locked out a lot of stuff from my memory, so that’s why I cannot remember,” he said in response to questions from the Crown.
“If you’ve been through the trauma that I’ve been through, and been shocked and had bruises, you would probably understand where I’m coming from.”
Chaudhary said he has been kept at Maplehurst Correctional Complex for about three weeks, where he didn’t receive his prescribed medications including melatonin and vitamins.
“Last night, I couldn’t sleep. I had terrors, night terrors. I couldn’t eat when I got back, so it does affect me,” he said. “So, that’s why I’m not able to help you, but I would like to.”
He asked the court to send him back to the Collins Bay Institution, a federal prison in Kingston, Ont., where he is serving his sentence.
“I’ve been in Maplehurst, living with three people in a cell by a toilet, and I’ve been not getting no medical attention. I’ve asked for it,” he said.
“I’m not in the right state of mind to remember stuff you’re asking me,” he told the Crown.
After some discussions between prosecutors and defence lawyers, Superior Court Justice Gordon Cudjoe issued an order to return Chaudhary to the Collins Bay Institution and bring him back to the Brampton courthouse on Monday morning to resume his testimony.
Cudjoe also told Chaudhary he will make a recommendation to the prison to have him assessed by a medical professional.
During his testimony on Tuesday, Chaudhary said he didn’t really know Sidhu and that he only called or texted him when he couldn’t get ahold of Panesar.
The Crown asked Chaudhary about text and group chat messages related to the heist, but he repeatedly said he did not remember or recall the content of these conversations, nor who was involved in them.
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.
Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press
