Anthropogenic releases from different outlets of industry, municipal sewage and the road traffic can give rise to higher concentrations of the heavy metals in the food commodities which imposes a threat to human health and environment. A simple silver nanoparticle (Ag NPs) used for the sensing of heavy metal ions, Cd2+, Cu2+, Fe2+, Hg2+, Mn2+, Ni2+, Pb2+ and Zn2+ in aqueous solution is described by qualitative and quantitatively using spectroscopic tool. FE-SEM and TEM images confirmed that the particles are spherical in shape with an average diameter of 23.4 nm. In presence of heavy metal ions with Ag NPs, a new peak at around 925, 898, 643, 665, 688, and 838 nm of Cd2+, Cu2+, Fe2+, Hg2+, Mn2+ and Zn2+ appeared in addition to the peak found at 410 nm of Ag NPs. Further, the addition of Ni2+ and Pb2+ metal ion solution with Ag NPs increased the SPR band from 410 nm to 436 and 462 nm respectively. Citrate functionalized Ag NPs are aggregated in solution in the presence of divalent metal ions by an ions-template chelating process and easily measurable change in the UV-vis absorption spectrum of the particles. Further, studies also confirmed the interaction of Ag NPs with metal ions using FT-IR spectroscopy. The proposed method was found to be useful for simple UV-vis spectroscopic sensing of metal ions in aqueous solutions and real contaminated samples.