Mastermind of Toronto airport gold heist testifies that PTSD, prison conditions have robbed him of his memory

Arsalan Chaudhary, a suspect in the 2023 Pearson International Airport gold heist, is arrested by Peel Regional Police after arriving at Pearson airport from Dubai, on Monday Jan. 12, 2026. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

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One of the admitted masterminds behind Canada’s largest gold heist who has been ordered to testify in court against a co-accused — and against his will — said his memory is fried because of PTSD from being kidnapped, poor treatment in prison and a lack of sleep.

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Arsalan Chaudhary, who previously pleaded guilty for his role orchestrating the Toronto airport gold heist, was subpoenaed by Crown prosecutors to be the star witness at the trial of Parmpal Sidhu, a former Air Canada employee in the cargo warehouse from where the crate of gold and cash, worth more than $22 million, was stolen in 2023 shortly after it arrived on a flight from Switzerland.

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On Tuesday, he told a dramatic story of being one of two key organizers of the successful plot to steal the loot and then of losing his 30 per cent share to kidnappers in Pakistan, where he fled after the heist. The kidnappers, he said, were members of the Pakistani police, who grabbed him and tortured him until he revealed where the gold was hidden. His captors used contacts in Canada to secure the gold before releasing him.

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He said the ordeal left him psychologically scarred and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

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By midday Tuesday, the first day of Chaudhary’s testimony, Crown prosecutor Jelena Vlacic was already appearing increasingly frustrated by Chaudhary’s answers.

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He said he could not recall important names, dates and places.

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He said he did not know whether a phone that police seized from his apartment where he lived alone was his, nor could be recall his phone number, or if messages police extracted from the phone were from him, to him, or anything to do with him. She led him through a 34-page print out of text messages, and chats using the encrypted messaging apps Signal and WhatsApp, none of which he said were familiar to him.

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Vlacic asked him about a WhatsApp group chat extracted from the phone called “Let’s Roll” from the time of the gold heist.

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“Does that group chat name mean anything to you?”

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“No, no.”

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“Do any of those participant names mean anything to you?”

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“No, ma’am.”

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He was also asked about two debt lists seized by police that appear to be breakdowns of how the heist profits were divided. He said the lists were make-believe, one just to satisfy his kidnappers in Pakistan.

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“It was just a bunch of names that I put on, whatever. It didn’t mean anything,” he said.

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Vlacic asked about the name “Hulk” appearing both as a contact name on the phone, in the group chat, and on the debt list.

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“Who is Hulk?”

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“I don’t know, ma’am,” he said. “I can’t recall this chat, ma’ am.”

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What he did recall about the people who had been charged for the gold heist by Peel Regional Police, he told court, is that most of them didn’t know anything about the plan to steal gold.

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Vlacic said she planned to ask for permission to cross-examine the witness, a court process that would allow her to challenge her own witness’s testimony.