These files were not modified through Core FTP Lite or any other ftp client i was using, so I had to login to the jumpbox as root and pass the chmod command to change permissions
sudo –i
(logs you in temporarily as root)
chmod og=rw /var/data/joomla15/xyz/abc.php
http://www.jumpbox.com/archives/140_how-to-access-a-jumpbox-as-root.html
