La doping at Bi Site in multiferroic BiFeO₃ (BFO) is known to stabilize the ferroelectric perovskite phase and reduce the leakage current. It has been observed that in Dy modified BFO sample, La is not required for the said reason. In fact, the removal of La from Dy modified BFO system leads to the reduction in leakage current. Moreover, the magnetic properties are enhanced by order of magnitude in the absence of La in the system. Remarkably, a similar trend in properties has been also observed in thin films grown on Pt/TiO₂/SiO₂/Si substrate by using the pulsed laser deposition technique. This significant variation in the properties after removal of La from the system could be attributed to the change in lattice parameters, bond lengths and Fe-O-Fe bond angle as determined by powder x-ray and neutron diffraction study.