New Delhi, Oct. 10: Move over, cash-splurging IT firms, the army it seems is a better paymaster.

Over a dozen searches at the residential and office premises of a major general have revealed six properties worth Rs 5.33 crore at New Delhi, Shimla and Gurgaon.

CBI sources said the Jaipur-based officer and his family have Rs 57.86 lakh in bank balances and fixed deposits and other investments worth Rs 1.21 crore.

They said the value of assets alleged to be disproportionate to Major General Anand Kumar Kapoor’s known sources of income is about Rs 4.78 crore.

An FIR was filed against the officer after the searches in Jaipur, Delhi, Shimla, Mumbai and Gurgaon. But Kapoor, in charge of the South Western Command that was set up last year, has not been arrested, CBI officials said.

Sources close to Kapoor, who is from the Army Ordnance Corps, said the officer has always been wealthy with a lot of inherited property.

Usually, army offices are not raided by either the CBI or police, and many expressed surprise after the searches. But defence minister A.K. Antony told reporters that whatever was being done was with the “full knowledge” of his ministry.

“Whatever needs to be done to root out corruption, we will do,” the minister said.

Recently, another officer’s house in Gurgaon was searched by the CBI under the Official Secrets Act. Major General V.K. Singh, a former joint secretary with the Research and Analysis Wing, was accused of wrongful communication of information through a book he wrote on the external spy agency.

But then Singh is a retired officer of the Signal Corps, while Kapoor is a serving officer.

But Antony dismissed such distinctions. “So what?” the defence minister retorted. “We want to take stringent action.”

During the searches, the CBI also came across two floors of a building under construction in Defence Colony, New Delhi. Agency sources said incriminating documents pertaining to the properties have been seized.

Apart from the fixed deposit receipts, the CBI found Rs 6 lakh in cash, records of four lockers in different banks and 12 credit cards.