Up to 70 Indian passports have been reported stolen from the San Francisco office of a private company which has been handling passport and visa services under an outsourcing arrangement with the Indian Government.
Alerted by a reader who lost his passport, the California-based India-West journal has reported that the San Francisco Police Department began investigating the theft of passports from the office of BlS International in early December.
The Indian consulate in San Francisco, has sought to tamp down fears of the loss of so many passports, stating that all the stolen passports have been cancelled and that they cannot be misused now for any fraudulent travel as they are machine-readable and verified through a system used throughout the world.
San Francisco Police Department Officer Gordon Shyy has been quoted as saying that the burglary is still under active investigation that began on December 2, 2013 after a BlS employee complained that the passports, along with cash and checks, had been taken from a locked safe. There was no evidence of a break-in.
Initial reports put the number of stolen passports at eight. later, the police received complaints from a number of Indian residents that their passports have been lost. Estimating that up to 70 Indian passports may have been stolen, the police officer said the State Department has been notified about it as per protocol.
BlS International, which replaced another company handling passport/visa services for the Indian consulates in the US in July last year, is itself in the process of being replaced soon because of a spate of complaints from the user public.
The Indian Embassy last month invited bids for handling the facility.