A second person accused in an alleged Islamic State (IS) terrorism plot that emerged in 2019 and spanned Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has been sentenced to seven years in prison in Bengaluru after he pleaded guilty to the charges.A special court for National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases sentenced Syed Fasiur Rehaman, 37, on August 29 on charges of being part of a terrorist group, recruiting people and raising funds for it.A resident of Bengaluru, Rehman is among 20 people chargesheeted in the case related to the “Al Hind module”, which allegedly recruited members at the instance of foreign handlers and terror suspects in South India in 2019-20.On August 25, Rehman pleaded guilty to eight charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code, and one charge under the Arms Act.Rehman pleaded “not guilty” in September 2025 but changed his plea on account of being in prison for nearly six years and the trial being at an early stage, sources said.In July this year, Mohammed Haneef, 31, another Karnataka resident accused of being a member of the module, similarly pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in prison.The sentences against the accused “shall run concurrently” and “the period of detention undergone in judicial custody shall be set off against the term of imprisonment imposed”, the NIA court said in its order.Story continues below this adAlso Read | Bengaluru Police book 17 in terror caseThe NIA took over the investigation after the Bengaluru police registered the case in 2020.“The members of the terrorist gang conducted meetings at Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and propagated ISIS ideology, procured arms and ammunition and other incriminating material for executing their plans,” the NIA had said.‘Radicalisation under the pretext of social service’The plot emerged in December 2019 after the Tamil Nadu police began a hunt for an alleged Islamic State-linked radical, Khaja Moideen, 52, who disappeared despite being under trial for two terrorism cases in the state from 2014 and 2017: the murder of a right-wing Hindu leader and the recruitment of youths on behalf of Islamic State.According to the police, Moideen engaged in radicalisation and recruitment activities for Islamic State after his release from prison in April 2019 under the pretext of carrying out social service with a group called the Al Hind Trust set up in Bengaluru by his associate Mehboob Pasha.Story continues below this adAnother key figure identified in the terrorism plot was Abdul Matheen Taha, 34, an engineering graduate from Shivamogga in Karnataka who was arrested in 2024 after his alleged role emerged in the March 1, 2024, blast at the Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru.Taha and his associate Mussavir Hussain Shazib, who are both accused in the cafe blast case, were allegedly among 18 people Moideen and Pasha recruited for Islamic State activities.Policeman shot dead during vehicle searchTwo members of the group are incidentally accused of shooting down a policeman, Wilson, on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border on January 8, 2020.Incidentally, Moideen was acquitted by a Tamil Nadu court in a 2017 case where he was accused by the NIA of involvement in an Islamic State recruitment effort.Story continues below this adA Tamil Nadu man was alleged to have travelled to Syria from Singapore in 2014 to join the Islamic State as part of this effort. He was arrested in 2019 by the Delhi Police Special Cell while attempting to travel to Kashmir —after fleeing from Tamil Nadu—to join terrorist activities there.Pasha allegedly gave guns to two men—Thowfeek and Abdul Shameem—who used them to kill the policeman during a routine vehicle search on the border.Two days after the murder and a day after the Special Cell showed the arrest of Moideen and two associates, Abdul Samad and Ali Nawaz, the Bengaluru police registered a terrorism case against the members of the Al Hind Trust in the Suddaguntepalya police station.