Calcutta, Jan. 28: The conviction of six accused in the Kamduni rape-and-murder case was today welcomed by the villagers and activists alike after initial apprehensions that the suspects would be set free.

Shashwati Ghosh of Maitree, a women's network, said she was a little disappointed with the acquittal of two of the accused but welcomed the conviction of the six.

Bharati Mutsuddi, a lawyer, CPM cadre and former member of the state women's commission, said she always had faith in the impartiality of the judiciary. "The verdict has proved it again," she said.

Apprehensions about the investigation and prosecution had crept in at the initial stages because of the political storm that buffeted the tragedy.

For the two-and-a-half years since the second-year BA student returning home from college was dragged from the road into an enclosure, raped by several men and killed on June 7, 2013, Kamduni, a village where many families earn their living from fisheries, became a theatre in which various political forces - most notably the ruling Trinamul Congress - were at play.

Kamduni turned into a "movement" the moment Mamata Banerjee stepped into the village 10 days after the incident.

Tumpa Koyal, who was close to the rape victim, told the chief minister at the top of her voice to listen to the villagers.

Almost the entire village, irrespective of party sympathies, organised itself under the banner of Kamduni Pratibadi Mancha.

The protesters complained that police were manipulated into filing a chargesheet that weakened the case against Ansar Ali, identified by the villagers as the main culprit and who was today convicted.

As the Mancha took out its rallies, another "protest forum" called the Shantiraksha Committee, formed by Trinamul supporters from the village and outside, staged demonstrations, trying to subvert the Pratibadi Mancha's activities.

On every seventh day of the month for the first few months, the villagers gathered in front of a portrait of the girl in a brief ceremony. Representatives of most mainstream parties, except that of Trinamul, often joined them despite intimidation.

But there was a problem.

Two young women, Tumpa and Moushumi Koyal, were becoming celebs, along with Pradip Mukherjee, the headmaster of the primary school in the village who had spearheaded the protest.

Tumpa - for being the one who had spoken up for the villagers to chief minister, and Moushumi - for being articulate. It bred widespread resentment in the village.

Two or three months after the incident, a relative of Moushumi, sitting on the stairs of their family house, was seen complaining loudly how Moushumi had monopolised all the attention in the media and was making a living out of it.

This was one reason villagers from Kamduni did not turn out at the sessions court today when the verdict was delivered.

They see themselves as distanced from the cause they had all championed after the college girl's death.

When the girl's father and two brothers were given jobs by the government and the family shifted out of Kamduni overnight to an address that was not disclosed initially, some villagers had said they felt "betrayed".

They felt "betrayed" again when in 2015, Mukherjee contested the Madhyamgram municipal elections with the Forward Bloc supporting him.

"They all have political ambitions," said a Kamduni villager dismissively, though Moushumi and Tumpa have denied reports of their affiliation to any party.