The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a High Court order  that granted interim bail to expelled Juba League leader and controversial contractor SM Ghulam Kibria Shamim, also known as GK Shamim, now serving life-term imprisonment for possessing illegal arms.

A five-judge bench also asked the High Court to dispose of shamim’s appeal against his jail term within two months.

His lawyer Fida M Kamal told reporters that his client would not get release from the jail as he was in jail in two other cases.

The Appellate Division issued the directive after disposing of a petition filed by the government challenging the High Court that granted Shamim bail on December 13, 2023.

On September 20, 2019 the Rapid Action Battalion arrested Shamim, also the owner of construction firm GK Builders at his Niketan office on charges of extortion and tender manipulation and seized a licensed pistol, ammunition, five bottles of wines, Tk 2 crore in cash and fixed deposit receipt of about Tk 165 crore.

At least four cases were filed with Gulshan police station against Shamim under Arms Act, Narcotics Control Act, Money Laundering Prevention Act and illegal wealth possession.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Additional Sessions Judge Court-3 on September 25, 2022 sentenced GK Shamim and the seven bodyguards to life in jail in an arms case.

The Dhaka Special Judge Court-10 later on July 17, sentenced GK Shamim, to 10 years in prison on charge of laundering Tk 195 crore.

Judge Md Nazrul Islam also jailed seven of his bodyguards for four years for assisting GK Shamim in illegal acquiring of the laundered money.

GK Shamim was a top contractor of government projects and laundered the money to Singapore and Malaysia, according to the prosecution.