Subarnarekha River is a rain‐fed peninsular river passing through industrial city Jamshedpur, an important industrial centre of Jharkhand, India. Heavy metal concentrations like Zn, Pb, Cr, Cd, Ni and Cu in water, sediment and in different food webs were determined using inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrophotometer for two sampling sites that are found stressed with high contamination due to urbanization and anthropogenic activities. Present study mainly focuses on the metal concentration in water, sediment, plankton with bioaccumulation factor (BAF) in body parts of molluscs and fishes. The study revealed that Zn and Pb were found in highest concentration in plankton (Zn: 20.6 g/kg, Pb: 6.0 g/kg), molluscs (Zn: 4.6 g/kg, Pb: 0.6 g/kg) and in fish (Zn: 6.1 g/kg, Pb: 3.0 g/kg) as biomagnification. Calculated BAF indicated that in fish species Zn has highest BAF value followed by Pb, which may be harmful for human consumption.