Elon Musk countersued Twitter in a legal battle to abandon its $44 billion takeover, Reuters reported, adding that the lawsuit was filed in secret. While the document is sealed, a revised version may be released soon.

 

The lawsuit was filed on Friday, the report said, just hours after a court ordered a five-day trial to begin Oct. 17 to decide whether Musk can back out of the deal. On July 8, Musk filed to withdraw from a deal to buy the company after disagreements with Twitter over the proportion of fake accounts. In a May filing, Twitter estimated that 5 percent of its accounts were fake. Then, after accepting Musk's takeover offer in late April, Twitter sued Musk on July 12, forcing him to buy the platform for about $44 billion.