A complaint by BJP MP Mahesh Girri raising questions on Congress vice-president and MP Rahul Gandhi's citizenship has been forwarded to the ethics committee by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

The complaint arose after BJP leader Subramanium Swamy said he has in his possession documents declaring Rahul Gandhi British. Gandhi Rahul had apparently declared in two tax returns in 2005 and 2006 in the UK that he was a British citizen to float a company called Backops Limited.

Swamy had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking for cancellation of Gandhi's Indian citizenship and membership to Parliament.

"One MP had sent a complaint to me regarding this. Whenever an MP sends a complaint to the Speaker, it is referred to the committee as per rules. That particular complaint has been referred to the Ethics Committee," Mahajan told Press Trust of India.

The Lok Sabha ethics committee is headed by BJP veteran LK Advani.

Girri had written to the speaker of the Lok Sabha to start a probe about Rahul's citizenship by instituting a special committee or referring it to the Ethics Committee. If proven true, it would be held in violation of the Representation of the People Act and Rahul would lose his membership to Parliament, since to be a MP one has to be an Indian citizen.

The Supreme Court of India had dismissed a PIL to probe Rahul Gandhi's citizenship in November 2015.