we lead off with breaking news a development in the largest gold heist in Canadian history you’ll certainly remember this video was part of a police news conference that we carried live just a few months ago it captures the daring Heist as it happened at an Air Canada cargo facility near Toronto’s Pearson International Airport this was back in April of 2023 police say more than $20 million in gold bars and cash were loaded onto a truck and then driven away well this morning CBC News is learning that one of the suspects still at large in the heist is preparing to return to Canada it’s cbc’s Katie Nicholson who’s breaking the story for us in studio with me live to take us through your reporting Katie yeah so I have been looking for siman prit panar for months pretty much since uh the it was announced there was a Canada wide warrant for his arrest and the question was where is he so uh I got a text just yesterday from uh Toronto criminal defense lawyer Greg leontine who told me that Mr panesar is planning on returning to Canada uh he says that uh I’ll just read a little bit of his statement um Mr panesar is confident in the Canadian justice system when this prosecution is over he will be absolved of any wrongdoing he also says uh that as soon as he was retained as a lawyer uh he contacted police and the crown to let them know that Mr panar was voluntarily returning to Canada that is expected expected to happen in the next couple of weeks he says he’s anxious for his client to have an opportunity to demonstrate his absolute innocence in this uh and he says that penar is currently tidying up his Affairs abroad before returning to Canada abroad yes where where and did you find him what can you tell us about how you find him tell us about that aspect too so Mr leontine will not say where his client is he’s citing privacy concerns but for weeks now we’ve been trying to find Mr panar uh through his wife’s social media post she has quite a robust social media presence uh she is a singer and an actress and we know that the two of them made a number of videos while they were here uh living in Canada uh they’re trying to break into the Punjabi music scene I actually have a little bit of one of their videos that was first released in 2020 you’ll see bits of Toronto in the Skyscape uh in the video it’s called Uh ter so just a little bit of of that first video so that is his wife pretty uh panar she is a former Miss India Uganda and there are a number of public documents that we were able to find advertorials that were published in India where they’re indicating that they’re trying to break into that industry she’s done a number of interviews with Punjabi entertainment uh sort of figures as well and uh they were tied to uh a movie it’s not clear if it was ever made back in 2021 2022 that they were trying to uh to get green lit that was going to be made in Punjab as well so I she kept posting pictures uh over this period even just before the uh the gold Heist charges were announced and in it she had tagged a number of businesses and and other people so I just started to contact everybody who was tagged uh and I also contacted her official email address which was on her public profile multiple times over the last couple of weeks uh and eventually I looked down at my phone on Wednesday after renewing a whole bunch of these uh attempts at contact and here was a WhatsApp message from Mr panar himself himself uh he didn’t responded to my subsequent questions but the WhatsApp business account that he was using to contact me was associated with an Indian mobile phone number so uh not for sure but very likely he may have been in India all this time and on his way back to answer these charges expected as you said in the next couple of weeks in the foreseeable future exactly yeah unbelievable Katie thank you so much thank you for coming in uh breaking that news and there is more reporting too online so Katie’s pieace again just as she was outlining to us that he is set to turn himself in more online on our website and the CBC News app
The former Air Canada manager wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for his alleged role in the largest gold heist in Canadian history is preparing to turn himself in, according to his lawyer. Simran Preet Panesar is wanted on charges including theft over $5,000 in connection with the April 2023 theft of more than $20 million in gold from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.
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