The body of Mustafa Rashidi, prime accused in the bomb blast at the Hindu Munnani office at Chinthadripet in 1995, which was lying in the government general hospital mortuary for the past 12 years, was handed over to the police on Tuesday night.

The body of Rashidi, the suspected suicide bomber, who killed Hindu Munnani district secretary Shanmugham on April 14, 1995 at Chinthadripet in Chennai was kept in the government general hospital mortuary.

The Crime branch of the Tamil Nadu police, investigating the case for the past 12 years, told the hospital authorities that there was no need for the body to be kept there any more, hospital sources said.

Meanwhile, police said though the investigating team had established that the body was of Mustafa Rashidi, native of Kanyakumari, in 2001, the investigating officer had ordered a DNA test to confirm the identity of the suspect and the case cannot be closed unless there was solid evidence to prove it.

The sources said they had also sent blood samples of the suspect to the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics in Hyderabad.

The police, however, declined to disclose where they had shifted the body.