Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a citizen by birth but lacks documents to back the claim, his office has said in reply to a query recently made under the Right to Information act.

On February 17, a person named Shubhangkar Sarker asked if the prime minister possessed citizenship documents.

A secretary at the Prime Minister's Office, said that Modi was Indian by birth according to clause 3 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, reports Indian Bengali-language daily Anandabazar.

Amid ongoing turmoil over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) across India, the statement has created quite a stir.