•Room temperature weak ferromagnetism in polycrystalline Bi0.85Gd0.05La0.1FeO3.•Plausible multiferroic properties at room temperature in polycrystalline Bi0.85Gd0.05La0.1FeO3.•Magneto-electric coupling in polycrystalline Bi0.85Gd0.05La0.1FeO3. The structural, magnetic and magneto-electric (ME) properties of polycrystalline BiFeO3 and Bi0.9–xGdxLa0.1FeO3 (x = 0.00 and 0.05) samples have been investigated. X-ray diffraction patterns confirm the formation of single phases in all the samples with ‘R3c’ space group. Magnetic anisotropy and ferroelectric hysteresis behaviour are observed in Bi0.85Gd0.05La0.1FeO3 through magnetization and polarization measurements respectively. In addition, the same compound shows weak ferromagnetism at room temperature with a significantly enhanced remnant magnetization of ~ 23.6emu.mol−1, concomitant with an exchange bias. ME measurements on the compound show a non-linear dependence of magnetic and electric vectors.