Cuttack, Sept. 13: Markatnagar police are on the job to recover text messages sent by the murdered school teacher Alakananda Mishra, 37, to the main accused and principal of an English medium school in Cuttack Paresh Mohapatra.

The police said Paresh, 55, had intentionally deleted the messages.

“We are planning to take Paresh on remand again to collect more information in the case,” said an official of Markat Nagar police station.

Collection of evidence and corroborating it with facts remain a big challenge for police in the Alakananda murder case.

Mere confession of the key accused, Paresh, may not be enough to prove him guilty. A lot will depend on circumstantial evidence, statements of the other accused and witnesses, including family members of the deceased, said retired assistant commissioner of police Ramesh Kar.

“The body has been cremated. It requires thorough probe and circumstantial evidences to nail the culprits,” said Kar.

It is alleged that Paresh, after killing Alakananda between 1pm and 4pm on July 29, cremated the body at Kaliaboda the same night.

The police registered a case on August 27 after the deceased’s brother had suspected foul play and approached the police.

The police have arrested 10 persons, including Paresh, in connection with the case and are on the job to establish that the bones recovered from Kaliaboda graveyard are the charred remains of Alakananda’s body. Earlier, they had collected bones, ashes and some articles from the graveyard. The bones will be sent for a DNA test outside the state.

Markatnagar police have recovered some electronic gadgets, blood stained cloth and a dupatta, which was used to strangle the victim. All the items, including the deceased’s cell phone, were recovered from Paresh’s office on the school premises.

Alakananda was working as a teacher at the private school, where the prime accused was the principal.

Paresh’s confession that he killed Alakananda as she had been putting pressure on him for marriage and his description of the sequence of events till the cremation of the body have been videographed, said a cop.