Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 6 (IANS): Bishop of Thamarassery attached to the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church has constituted a Tribunal with a four-member group of priests to conduct the "trial" against the "accused" Rev Fr Aji Puthiyaparambil for defying the directives of the Church.

Puthiyaparambil has been a priest of the Church for the past two decades and courted trouble when he raised issues about some wrong-doings of the higher ups on a few issues.

Soon he was suspended by the Church but following support from the laity that the 46-year-old priest was just pointing out some errors of the higher ups, his suspension was revoked.

It was then the Bishop of Thamarassery-Remigiose Innchananiyil decided to constitute a Tribunal to conduct the trial against the priest.

However, the priest told the media that all he did was to point out some wrongs that the Church was engaged in.

"My fear is that if things are going forward like this, what happened to Churches in Europe will befall here too," said Puthiyaparambil.