Senior NCP leader Dilip Walse Patil was on Monday given the charge of Maharashtra Home department following the resignation of Anil Deshmukh.

Walse Patil is currently holding the Labour and Excise portfolios. The labour portfolio being held by Walse Patil is now assigned to Rural Development Minister Hassan Mushrif while Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar will look after the Excise department, the statement said.

Earlier in the day, Deshmukh resigned as the Home Minister after the Bombay High Court ordered a preliminary inquiry by the CBI into allegations of extortion raised against him by former Mumbai Police Chief Param Bir Singh.

In his resignation letter to Maharashtra CM, Anil Deshmukh said he doesn't find it morally correct to continue as the Home Minister after the Bombay High Court's order.

Earlier, Param Bir Singh claimed that Deshmukh had asked police officers, including suspended assistant police inspector Sachin Waze, to collect Rs 100 crore each month from bars and restaurants. Waze was arrested earlier this month by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the case of a bomb scare near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence in Mumbai.

Singh was shifted from the post of Mumbai's Commissioner of Police to the Home Guards department on March 17.

(With inputs from PTI)

(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)