"yes, I did take the part out of circuit completely and then using multimeter checked whether the pins are shorted or not."

In the above I gather that the "pins" you refer pertain to the pins of the IC base and not that of the MCU pins..

If it is the latter that you are referring to, don't do that again. MCUs are NEVER certified based on multimeter continuity checks, if thats what you meant.

Raghu